Where does your charging come from survey

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Davydd

The video by ARV has been posted here many times by others. ...

For good reason. I love that vid. It's the vid I reference when I harp to my husband that alternator reality is a lot different from alternator theory. If this were not true, ARV would not have dumped that impressive volume of R&D into the issue and that product.

If our circumstances change such that we come to need a beast of an alternator and we need it to be absolutely foolproof, I will look into whether ARV will sell it to 3rd parties. But we have a T1N Sprinter and I'm not 100% sure that one would fit.

Meanwhile, we make do with our other 3 charging mechanisms, and our ordinary Bosch 200 A is used sparingly.

[booster]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

For good reason. I love that vid. It's the vid I reference when I harp to my husband that alternator reality is a lot different from alternator theory. If this were not true, ARV would not have dumped that impressive volume of R&D into the issue and that product.

If our circumstances change such that we come to need a beast of an alternator and we need it to be absolutely foolproof, I will look into whether ARV will sell it to 3rd parties. But we have a T1N Sprinter and I'm not 100% sure that one would fit.

Meanwhile, we make do with our other 3 charging mechanisms, and our ordinary Bosch 200 A is used sparingly.

One thing to consider is that the "normal" Nations (DC Power Engineering) alternator is rated at 280 amps. In reality, if you pull that many amps it will go into thermal cycling from the Balmar regulator temp sensor, though. The better setup, especially for you as you are OK with the lower output from your current setup, is to use the Balmar to turn the output down to around 140 amps. The alternator can run continuously at that load without overheating and it will put less load on the belt and clutch pulley, so a win, win, win benefit. It is fails just have a manual switchover to the stock alternator, but at 140 amps those alternators should last a very long time as they are very well built.

[avanti]

On the issue of "belt flutter", folks may want to check out the video I made of my Nations/Balmar setup vs the ARV results:

http://www.classbforum.com/forums/f2...html#post44432

[InterBlog]

This thread was a good idea. Anyone care to summarize? Or, message me your numbers so that I don't have to comb through the thread and deduce, and I will fill in the table.

[hbn7hj]

hbn7hj 200AH lithium 225AH FLA 30% solar 70% generator
hbn7hj 100AH lithium 100AH FLA 10% solar 2,0% generator 70% alternator

[booster]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

This thread was a good idea. Anyone care to summarize? Or, message me your numbers so that I don't have to comb through the thread and deduce, and I will fill in the table.

Excellent idea, Interblog.



For us use 80% solar, 15% alternator, 0 generator, 5% shore

[markopolo]

Great topic! I won't participate because although I've spent 400 nights or so in an RV over the last 3 years it hasn't been in a Class B RV. I'd guess the rigs were plugged into the grid 99% of the time.

Excellent idea from Interblog to summarize the data in table form.

I'm looking forward to reading more replies, keep them coming!

[SteveJ]

Solar 70
Shore 20
Alternator 5
Genny 5

Shore percentage is about 75 percent while driveway camping.

100 AH LA.

[avanti]

While in use:
Solar 5%
Shore 45%
Second Alternator 50%
Genny .0005%

In storage:
Solar 100%

Oops. Forgot capacity:
440Ah AGM

[Boxster1971]

For me with 440AH AGMs:

70% solar, 10% alternator, 0 generator, 20% shore

[GeorgeRa]

This my shot at average use:

230 Ah AGM
Solar 65%
Shore 25%
Alternator 10%
Generator 0%

[Davydd]

800ah Lithium Ion
420w solar
330a second alternator
No Onan generator

5% solar
85% alternator
0% generator
10% shore power (based on 90% boondocking)

The more battery amp hours means solar is more insignificant especially when a second alternator can produce a charge rate that can replenish your batteries in under an hour and the rest of the time during the day when you drive solar contribution is wasted.

[GeorgeRa]

Just a thought, in addition to the Engine Alternator a second alternator such as RV alternator could be added to the table to eliminate possible confusion.

[GallenH]

100 AH AGM

10% solar
89% alternator
1% shore
0% gen

While in use. Depends on trip. In 4 years I can count the times we've camped where there is shore power on one hand. Usually we're on the move and don't use solar (suitcase). No need. When we're stationary for a few days, solar provides our total power. We obviously don't use much as I've stated earlier. We also use lithium packs to charge phone and ipad.

[rowiebowie]

200 AH lithium

0% solar
25% alternator
75% shore
0% gen

As GallenH said, it depends on trip. This particular "maiden voyage" on the lithium batteries has been far less boon docking that in the past due to plentiful 30A availability in the Southeast. Reverse the alternator and shore power charging figures above and they'd be more representative of our prior two years.

[InterBlog]

It does depend upon travel objectives, yes. My numbers are for my defined tech-limiting travel scenario - the exact boondocking scenario that our van was DIY-built to handle.

However, for instance - we also have a camp shack on Lake Sam Rayburn in east Texas. The camp shack has a full panelized metal canopy over it, so obviously I'm not using solar when I'm there. In that case, I plug in, because the 30 amp outlet is 5 feet from our van. But that's not "travel" the way I define it - that's just incidental driveway camping. I also plug in at my home when we are running the roof a/c because it's 98 degrees outside and we are trying to do work inside the van. That's not travel either - that's just driveway camping (or working).

I'll roll up my table at the point when it appears we are no longer continuing to receive posted numbers.

[Arlo]

800ah AGM
240w solar
Nations second alternator
No generator

While traveling:
80% second alternator
10% solar
10% shore

While not traveling (garaged with occasional drive):
50% second alternator
50% shore (30amp overnight every few weeks)

[tgregg]

200 AH Lithium

No solar
No generator
99% alternator
1% shore power - every month or two a 10 Amp charger to reset SOC meter

[Belzar]

Roadtrek CS with 800 AH lithium system (4 batteries). Since we drive most days, at least some, I rarely think about charging or bother to plug plug in. We usually only have 2 batteries on at a time. If I cook dinner on induction and microwave, bake cookies in oven, watch tv and run fans all night I might have to switch on another battery in morning for the coffee maker.

[VanFan]

We have a Promaster custom conversion with an Elite Power Systems 600 amp hour lithium battery and two Nations high output alternators. Each is rated for (roughly, working from memory) 280 amps per hour at idle speed which translates to 100-120 continuous amps per hour each in the real world (running hot). Other than shore power, that is our only power source. We have a combiner switch which allows us to take the primary OEM replacement alternator off line and charge only with the secondary alternator, or we can charge with both together to deliver 200 to 240 amps per hour to the battery. We also have an engine auto-start system based on a Viper remote start module and a Victron battery monitor.

Starting with 100% state of charge in the morning, our normal daily use is about 90 amps total. That's without even thinking about power conservation. Cooking with a microwave, making coffee, watching television for 2 or 3 hours in the evening, etc.

We live in Texas, so sometimes when boondocking in the summer we sleep with the air conditioner powered by the battery. Sleep would be impossible otherwise. On those nights, about an hour before bedtime we idle the engine to get the battery up to 100%. Then we fire up the air conditioner.

Our van is designed with a door to close off the sleeping area where the AC unit and the thermostat are, so we're actually only cooling half of the van when we sleep. Because of that arrangement, the AC only draws about 70 amps per hour since the compressor cycles off more than usual. (It's 90 amps per hour with the compressor on.) The inverter and phantom loads are another 5 or so, which leaves about 120-140 amps per hour for charging when the AC is running and the alternators are combined.

With a full battery at bedtime, our auto-start system is set to start the engine when the state of charge drops to 20%. That usually takes about 5.5 to 6 hours. Then while we're still asleep the engine runs for one hour (maximum auto-start system time) which delivers another 120 amps total to the battery (the AC is still cooling). Then we get another 1.5 hours or so on battery alone, which gets us our 8 hours of sleep. We wake up with enough power for breakfast and coffee, then we have to either drive or idle to recharge. Takes about 2.5 hours to get back up to 100% SOC from 20% at idle with no loads.

So our worst case power usage is about 730 amps per day while boondocking in the Texas summer, idling the engine about 4.5 hours per day (burns about 2 gallons of gas). The rest of the year it's about 90 amps per day of use and less than an hour of idle time. In practice, when it's cool enough to sleep without the AC we could boondock for 5 days without running the engine. But we rarely stay anywhere more than two nights.