Furnace voltage drain

[RickV]

I am going to be Semi Boon Docking this weekend. I will have a water hookup but no electrical hookup. It is supposed to be a little cool at night upper 30's and I will be using my propane furnace to heat my 5ver. My question is how much of a drain will this put on my battery? Will I be OK running it all night for 2 nights?

Thanks,
Rick

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by RickV

I am going to be Semi Boon Docking this weekend. I will have a water hookup but no electrical hookup. It is supposed to be a little cool at night upper 30's and I will be using my propane furnace to heat my 5ver. My question is how much of a drain will this put on my battery? Will I be OK running it all night for 2 nights?

Thanks,
Rick

Furnace is an electrical hog!
With one battery you most likely won't even make it through first night.


Turbs

[garbonz]

Typical furnace blowers draw 4 ish amps, and thus it will depend on your cycle time. Constant run for 8 hours overnight will be about 32 amps, plus whatever else you use. two nights 64 amps.

Keeping your battery discharge down to 50% of capacity, you would need at least 128 amps of battery for just the furnace if it is running all the time.

If you have 2 good quality deep cycles in good shape and are careful you may be able to pull it off. A more precise answer requires more precise data, as in what is your cycle time at 30deg, how much will you need the furnace during the day, what other loads might you be using etc.

[RickV]

Thanks for the replies. I only have single battery. Won't need the furnace during the day will warm up into the lower 70's and will be sunny . I also will have a borrowed Honda EU2000i with me so I can recharge. Just didn't want to run the generator all night. Should of said that in first post.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by RickV

Thanks for the replies. I only have single battery. Won't need the furnace during the day will warm up into the lower 70's and will be sunny . I also will have a borrowed Honda EU2000i with me so I can recharge. Just didn't want to run the generator all night. Should of said that in first post.

Garbonz' reply was right on. I can only add to make sure you run the generator for a few hours every day using the camper's built in charger (AKA Converter/Charger).

For a more complete charge you should use a dedicated battery charger plugged into the generator and connected directly to the battery. Run the charger until the meter on the charger indicates "Charged." This could take the better part of a day to restore a depleted battery.