Just wondering what everyone's experience is when camping in cold weather and running their furnace on batteries. Will the batteries wear down quickly? Approximately, how long will they last?
Posted 2006-10-18 10:43 AM (#50257 - in reply to #50235) Subject: RE: Camping and running furnace w/batteries
Expert
Posts: 2953 Location: North Carolina
It all depends on your furnace. Blowers and motors use a lot of power relative to batteries. If you already have a furnace, look at the nameplate for the wattage of the unit. Then you can use this as a guide to estimating the batteries needed.
"...flooded lead-acid batteries generally have about 25 wh/kg, the latest advanced lead-acid designs claim about 50 wh/kg, and newer battery technologies such as NiMH and LiON are in the 80-135 wh/kg range..."
The wh/kg means watt-hour per kilogram so if your battery weighs about 22 pounds (10 kg) it'll supply 25 watts for 10 hours or 250 watts for 1 hour... Approximately...
Not very much power compared to a campsite with a electric hook-up.
Posted 2006-10-18 3:49 PM (#50278 - in reply to #50235) Subject: RE: Camping and running furnace w/batteries
Veteran
Posts: 211 Location: El Paso, Texas
Get a Mr Buddy heater, we camp in the cold for days, we use the furnace only when needed and use the Mr Buddy all night long, it lasts 5-6 hours on a small screw on tank, on low, we still have to open a window because the heater works so well and keeps the LQ (12 ft short wall) at 75degrees no matter what it is outside. Plus the Mr Buddy makes no noise, the 12 volt furnace wakes me up every time it starts up. Last time we woke up it was 9 outside, and we did not even feel it.
Posted 2006-10-18 8:43 PM (#50289 - in reply to #50278) Subject: RE: Camping and running furnace w/batteries
Veteran
Posts: 216 Location: Chillicothe, Ohio
I'll second the motion re the furnace. If you are only going to run the furnace for a night with light usage, you can probably get by with running on the battery...perhaps a couple nights. If you are really serious about camping off of hookups, you would need to consider additional batteries, plus a solar panel. The best option in my opinion is to go lp heater. A Mr buddy works ok, but we had some problems with the odor with ours and I researched the internet and found most serious RV'ers that camp without hookups use a catalytic type heater...the most popular seem to be made by Olypian like the Wave 3 or 6. I have a wave 3 its only about 12" square by 3" thick and you can mount this on a wall in your trailer...it will easily heat a small lq or even a large one if insulated. The only drawback to this heater is the cost..about 230 compared to the mr buddy about 100??..but if the mr buddy fumes cause concern, you wont have any issues with the cat type heaters...just remember that any heater that burns or has flame must have some combustion air...window cracked or roof vent left slightly open. The cat type heaters dont have an open flame like the buddys and the surface temps are lower but can still burn you or kids...Be safe...Marty. Check out phrannie.org for some info on "boondocking rv camping"
Posted 2006-10-18 9:39 PM (#50296 - in reply to #50235) Subject: RE: Camping and running furnace w/batteries
Expert
Posts: 2453 Location: Northern Utah
I just went Deer hunting up in Wyoming for a long weekend. The built in propane furnace in my trailer ran for 3 days. I left it on 24 hours a day so the water in the trailer didn't freeze up. I did turn on the generator each night for 60 minutes while we cooked dinner and ate. This recharged the batteries and heated up enough hot water to clean up with and allowed us to run the microwave to heat up hot drinks or make a bag of popcorn.
Take a small generator with you and recharge the batteries each day and you can camp just fine for extended time.
I've used the Buddy heaters, but only when I was awake. I always worried about leaving them on after going to sleep or when the trailer was unattended. I know they have a low Oxygen sensor and the trailer has a CO2 alarm. But I still worry.
Camping and running furnace w/batteries
