If possible, leave the laptop at home and bring your tablet. Compare that to only 10 watts for a tablet. Laptops can use up to 100 watts of power when charging. Use a Tablet or Phone Instead of a Laptop Add insulation to your RV’s floor, windows, and around the bottom exterior (RV skirting) to help hold in heat in winter.Ĭheck out our guide on how to keep a camper warm in winter for more tips and tricks.When you do have to run your furnace, turn the thermostat down a few degrees.Just be sure to only use a heater designed for indoor use. Of course, you’ll still need propane gas, but you should be able to provide enough heat for a few days of boondocking in moderate weather with just a small 1-pound propane tank. Heater Buddy, is an effective way to heat your motorhome without electricity. A portable propane heater, like the Mr.Bring extra blankets and sleeping bags to help stay warm at night.This works well during the day in moderate temperature conditions (Spring and Fall). Park in a location where the sun can warm your RV.So, it’s important to run your propane furnace sparingly. While your RV furnace likely runs off propane, the unit’s fan can consume a lot of electrical energy. Not only do they use less electricity, but the light produced is also brighter than incandescent light. Speaking of lights, a simple way of conserving electricity in an RV is to swap out the old incandescent bulbs for LED (or fluorescent bulbs) as both will use less energy from your house battery. Cheap solar-powered LED yard lights are an excellent method to illuminate the outside of your RV at night. Lanterns may be used for reading, playing games, or other activities at night. Rechargeable batteries are used in flashlights, and they can last for weeks without being recharged. Use LED flashlights and lanterns when light is needed.Don’t stay up late when there is no sunlight and get up early with the sunrise. Plan your day around natural sunlight.If you’re a reader, try reading during the day as opposed to night.You can conserve valuable battery energy by only using lights when needed. Lights, particularly those utilizing incandescent bulbs, consume a significant amount of energy. Here are a few energy-saving tips to extend battery life when boondocking. If you’re a frequent boondocker or dry camper, it can be essential to conserve energy and get as much life out of your RV batteries as possible. Tip: Check out our guide to the best RV battery for boondocking to find the right battery for your needs! Tips to Extend Battery Life When Boondocking Lithium-ion batteries, on the other hand, can completely discharge before recharging (though the BMS will typically stop the discharge at 80-90%). In other words, a 100 ah battery will only give you roughly 50 amp-hours. Just keep in mind, if your RV or travel trailer uses lead-acid batteries, you can only discharge it to about 50% before having to recharge it (otherwise, you will cut its life short). This will help you understand how long your deep-cycle battery (or battery bank) will last without charging. Now, add up all of the amp hours of the appliances and devices you plan to use to get an estimation of the total amp hours you will use per day. Using your coffee pot for 1 hour per day will consume roughly 37.5 ah. Now, we simply need to convert the amps to 12-volts by multiplying by 10. In other words, when using 120v AC power, the coffee pot uses 3.75 ah. Now, let’s look at another example using a 120v appliance:Ī coffee pot uses 450W on 120-volt AC. If you use the light for 2 hours it will consume 3 amp hours of battery power. Important: If your device or appliance is 120v, you will need to multiply the amps by 10.Ī 12v light bulb draws roughly 1.5 amps. If they only display the watts for a specific device, convert it to amps by dividing watts/volts. This is sometimes printed on the device itself or in the owner’s manual. Check for the number of amps each device consumes. And if you want to get a better estimation of your energy usage before setting off on your camping trip, you can do so with a little math.īegin by making a list of the devices you’ll use on a daily basis and how long you think you’ll use each one. Whether you’re boondocking, dry camping, dispersed camping, or any camping with no utilities, it’s important to have a reasonable estimation of how long your RV battery setup will last.Īs previously mentioned, if you’re boondocking for a day and only using basic electrical equipment and appliances, an RV battery with 100 amp-hours (ah) of capacity (the typical RV battery size) should keep your RV running for 24 hours on one charge.īut, everybody’s energy usage is different. How Long Will a Battery Last Boondocking or Dry Camping? How to Charge RV Battery When Boondocking.Use a Tablet or Phone Instead of a Laptop.Tips to Extend Battery Life When Boondocking.How Long Will a Battery Last Boondocking or Dry Camping?.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |