power out bush

.

Hi mate...I have a small Honda generator which I couldn't reccomend highly enough! 1 tank of fuel will run it for about 8 to 10 hours, run it out on a 30mtr lead and you have to listen hard to hear the thing.
It runs my lights, charges my phone, the duel battery, torch and detector batteries, runs my comp and an austar box with a bit of room to spare.

My fridge runs on a 75 amp hr duel battery system that will run it for about 3 to 4 days before it needs a charge...longer in winter. I'm about to whack a solar panel on top of the camper that hopefully should keep it topped up.

when we use we use a good size gennie...we started it just on dark wich was about 6pm didn't run out off gas until about 3 to 4 in the morning...the gennie would be the way to go....
cheers
stoppsy

A SMALL GENNY (500 watt....not Chinese).......A SOLAR PANEL AND REGULATOR.....AN INVERTER (150 watt).....and a good second hand Waeco OR Engel (40 litre)......You should pick up the lot second hand for around $1,300
ONE OUNCE OF GOLD SHOULD COVER IT !
Be lucky................

Well Goldstalker GPX, my experience with Solar and Batteries and Generators.(Bush power)

In my motorhome we run all the above for different needs.
Last year we were away for 5 months going up the east coast and didnt plug into 240 volt power or run the generator at all. Lived with Sloar charging and M/home alternator charging.

We run an electric kettle when on the move . Run a Micro wave for short heat ups. A 240 volt Chainsaw (the Greenies dont hear any 2 stroke motor) A 240Volt Laptop computer and wireless Broadband (to keep up to date with you guys). Run 21" Telly on 12 volt . Water pump 12volt and 12volt lighting. Small 12volt beer fridge .The 240 volt Kettle & Micro run thru. a Pure sine wave Invertor off the 3 x 100amp Batteries. Charged by 4 x solar panels on the roof...... Our main fridge is Gas.
This year in Tassie for 3 mths and we ran the genny a couple of times to keep batteries up as the sun wasnt as good as the previous year up the east coast.

What you need to decide is the amount of amp.hours you are going to need per day in a 24 hour period and then work out how much you can get out of the batteries you have and then how you are going to charge (replace the power) in them.

If you can exist all on 12volt power you dont need an Invertor. But if you are going to use your Laptop OR electronic Stuff , you should use a Pure sinewave Invertor OR Pure sinewave Generator as they provide 240 Volt power cleaner than at home and dont run the risk of upsetting the electronics.

Personally I dont like running the genny of a night... Noise etc etc . But that doesnt worry some people, as Madtuna said he runs out a 30mtr lead so he cant here it.

A genny is probably the cheapest way to go to charge batteries , (best to use an onboard 3- stage 240v. charger powered off the genny) and provide some 240 volt power when needed. BUT make sure you buy a sine wave genny to keep the gremmlins out of your good stuff. Well worth the extra money.

Just my thoughts John.

.

Gday


I travel rather lightly in the bush compared to some, but generally my trips are only for a few weeks at a time so I dont have a heavy power requirement when on my own.

My camper, toyota pc, is fitted with one 80 watt solar panel, and dual battery system, the second battery, a deep cycle calcium type, keeps the fridge, 40 ltr waeco going , and is topped up while the engine is running or by the solar panel when stationary, so that looks after itself, I also charge my detector batteries from this as well as it is wired direct to the battery so there is no issues with the minelab charger from starting and stopping the engine.

All other power comes from the vehicles main battery, interior lights, dvd player, laptop, but I am careful so when I am watching a movie the lights are off, as the dvd player has its own battery I can run off that if I want and it will re charge when the engine is going, same with the laptop, its only a 10" netbook so the power consumption is low on that as well.

There are also a lot of low power consumption led and fleuro lights about now, so I am slowly going to replace the standard ones with those, I have already started to fit led lights for exterior lighting, and if you forget and leave them on its no big issue.

I carry a 1000/2000 watt inverter to power a rotary hammer drill, and can connect it straight to the battery if needed, but thats the only 240v thing I would use, everything else is 12 volt.

cheers


stayyerAU

Hi Goldstalker GPX,
Not so long back we set-up our new custom caravan for stand-alone operation in the bush.
We run a Honda 2KVA genset, an 80 watt solar pannel with a smart three stage solar regulator as well as a 15 amp smart three stage battery charger to keep the 12 volt systems running and the 100AH AGM battery fully charged.
The Honda genset will happily run our 240 Volt AC requirements as well as a back-up for charging the AGM battery on overcast days.
If you are anyways serious about setting up a bush power system for your camper trailer, might I suggest you purchase a copy of Collyn Rivers book MOTORHOME ELECTRICS & CARAVANS TOO.
Google the title for info on where to purchase a copy, next to your detector it could well be the the best purchase you could make when it comes to all things electrical in the bush, cost is about thirty something dollars.
We found the book a fantastic reference that saved us alot of time and expense in setting up our rig, it's a great book.
Hope this might be of some use.
Cheers, AUoptimist.
PS; We also installed a pure sinewave 700Watt inverter to run the laptop and charge camera batteries etc.

.

madtuna wrote:Hi mate...I have a small Honda generator which I couldn't reccomend highly enough! 1 tank of fuel will run it for about 8 to 10 hours, run it out on a 30mtr lead and you have to listen hard to hear the thing.
It runs my lights, charges my phone, the duel battery, torch and detector batteries, runs my comp and an austar box with a bit of room to spare.

My fridge runs on a 75 amp hr duel battery system that will run it for about 3 to 4 days before it needs a charge...longer in winter. I'm about to whack a solar panel on top of the camper that hopefully should keep it topped up.

Could you tell me which model honda you have please.?

Howdy Guys

I am looking for a battery charger to charge my 12v 100AH deep cycle battery, from my 2kva petrol generator. For overcast days where my solar won't charge it.

I've found heaps of them online, and I have read that the higher the amps listed on the charger, the quicker it will charge the battery. So I was looking at a 25 amp one, and I just wanted to check two things with you guys:

1) Will my 2kva generator be able to supply the battery charger with enough juice for it charge at 25amps? The output listed on the generator says "240v 15amp".

and

2) If the charger charges at 25 amps does that mean it charges 25 amps every hour, so it would take 4 hours to charge my 100AH battery (assuming it was completely discharged - which of course I dont do)?

Cheers guys

Hi onthehunt,

I could be wrong, but.....the charger is rated at an output of 25A at 12v (probably more like 13.8v) which equates to a power output of about 300W. It will probably loose about 20% in the conversion of AC to DC so what your battery charger requires is an input of about 360W. Your genie is rated at 2kva so that should be more than enough to supply the charger and have plenty left over for your fridge, tv, laptop, or moble disco whilst you're waiting for your battery to charge up.
Batteries have an internal resistance and depending to whether you have an AGM or an SLA (or other) to how quickly they charge. AGMs have a very low internal resistance so they can take in alot more of the current the charger can push out, hence charge fairly quickly, maybe even in that 4 hours that you quoted. SLA batteries have a higher resistance so this resistance will slow the charging process down, so the battery will only take in as much as the resistance will allow. Also, the more charged a battery gets, the higher the resistance becomes. So to summarise, you will get to the 70%ish mark fairly quickly but the remainder 30% will take proportiantly longer to charge, maybe as long as the first 70% did because of the increase in internal resistance. The %s might not be exactly right because each battery is different, but hopefully you get my jist.

Maybe someone could correct me if they know better...

Cheers