Invertor or convetor?

[byransues]

Alright I know that this question has probably been adressed, but as I am new to this board and new to Rving in general. Can anybody tell me which I need. I have a 2007 Georgetown with neither convertor or invertor. The problem I am having is that when we dry camp and run the generator our house battery goes low and I have to start the rig to charge the battery. I also would like to be able run the television and other 110 appliances without running the generator. Help



Bryan, Sue and Ryan
Cocoa the black lab
driving a 2007 georgetown
currently no toad "yet"

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by byransues

Alright I know that this question has probably been adressed, but as I am new to this board and new to Rving in general. Can anybody tell me which I need. I have a 2007 Georgetown with neither convertor or invertor. The problem I am having is that when we dry camp and run the generator our house battery goes low and I have to start the rig to charge the battery. I also would like to be able run the television and other 110 appliances without running the generator. Help



Bryan, Sue and Ryan
Cocoa the black lab
driving a 2007 georgetown
currently no toad "yet"

You do have a converter, it's what converts 110v A/C to 12 volts D/C for your 12 volt fixtures. It also has a charger built in. If it isn't charging the batteries when plugged into shore power then it's bad. If it's a 2 stage charger like mine was then it is killing your batteries and will never fully charge them while you are plugged in. If you intend on doing a lot of dry camping then you really need a 3-stage quality charger/converter and more batteries. I always advocate the change from 12volt batteries to 6V batteries which are true deep cycle batteries (you group 24/27 may be called "deep cycle" but they arent really.

An INverter takes power from your batteries (12 volts D/C) and upconverts it to 110volts A/C. It's what you need to run your TV, DVD, etc without running the generator. Most people don't have a firm understanding of how much battery power it takes to run things on an INverter. It is generally not a good idea to try and expect to run the microwave, air conditioners or high amperage appliances (hair dryers, space heaters) with an inverter. If you need to run something like the microwave or AC then run the generator. TVs, DVDs and other lower amperage items are fine but a lot more comes into play and for sure if you only have the two 12volt group 24 or 27 batteries that came with your rig then you won't be running things for long before they are dead. Again it depends on a whole lot of factors and it' time to start doing some homework before you spend a lot of money to find out you can't do what you want to do.

[byransues]

The battery is charging when we are plugged into shore power, I quess my question is, is the generator supposed to charge the battery when it is running.

[byransues]

By installing an invertor will I be able to have a television running while running down the road.

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by byransues

By installing an invertor will I be able to have a television running while running down the road.

Yes the generator should be charging the batteries and yes with an inverter you can run the TV going down the road if installed correctly. However the converter/charger in most RVs is only 2 stage which means they will never bring your batteries to full charge and will over time kill them. I might also add that to charge your batteries from either shore power or generator can take up to 11 hours or more so just running it for an hour while out camping wont do the trick.

[NWJeeper]

You might want to do some research on these sites, lots of good information on batteries, converters, chargers and inverters:

http://www.batteryfaq.org/

http://www.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

[byransues]

I think I understand now. Thanks for your help.

[Herk7769]

http://www.bestconverter.com/

This site is also very good.

[piscesman]

I've also heard that the most efficient and fastest way to charge your batteries is to run the engine...is this true for either/both the coach and the starting batteries?

[NWJeeper]

Originally Posted by piscesman

I've also heard that the most efficient and fastest way to charge your batteries is to run the engine...is this true for either/both the coach and the starting batteries?

No this is actually incorrect. Your engine uses a LOT more gas than the generator does. You engine alternator will put out on average around 20 to 30 amps to the batteries. Your converter/charger depending on the size you have can put out close to it's maximum rated output to the batteries (65 amps if it's a 65amp output converter) However the amount will be lessened by the amount of other load you have running in your rig at the time (lights, furnace, fans, etc.) Also, if your batteries are not all that discharged then most converter chargers will automatically taper the amperage down to keep from cooking them. Therefore the charger will only put out what is necessary to charge the batteries. Running your engine will put out a constant amount of amps but for the amount of gas it takes it isn't the more efficient way to charge your batteries.

It is also advised that if you are going to run the generator to charge batteries do so when you can put more load on it like in the evening when you want to watch TV, heat water or run the furnace for heat. Generators need a load.