Wondering about battery power

[Longwhiskers]

I just purchased my first travel trailer, a 2019 Forest River Hemisphere Hyper Lyte 23 RBHL. So to use the battery power is there anything that needs to be switched on. I turned the inverter on, the slide, lights, awning work, but the plugs have no power?? Will the A/C run off the batteries??? Sorry to sound ignorant but like I said, it’s my first camper. Any help appreciated.

[tomkatb]

There are two separate systems 12 volt, the batteries and the 110 volt ac. Like the house. Ac, microwave, tv, outlets etc.

The converter turns 110ac into 12 volts dc to charge the battery.

The inverter turns the 12 volt dc to 110 ac. However. Keep in mind relatively speaking, the inverters are 80-90% efficient. The batteries hold little electricity. The reason most cars do not run on battery! A Tesla that will go 200 miles has lots of fancy batteries and costs $100,000. You likely have a cheap general purpose battery. $100.

A typical 12 volt battery will run a refrigerator continuously for two or three hours. Your ac 3500 Watts for 5 minutes or less(not powerful enough thou) You need to kind of understand the math. You can only discharge a battery 50% or you damage it.

I suspect your inverter is only connected to the fridge. Thus, nothing 110 volt is connected to the battery.

You can hook anything to it, but it is likely very small like max. 1000 Watts max, 500 watts continuously. That’s not much. No microwave or coffee pot, etc.

Got to be plugged in.

[Longwhiskers]

Gotcha. Preciate the help.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Longwhiskers

I just purchased my first travel trailer, a 2019 Forest River Hemisphere Hyper Lyte 23 RBHL. So to use the battery power is there anything that needs to be switched on. I turned the inverter on, the slide, lights, awning work, but the plugs have no power?? Will the A/C run off the batteries??? Sorry to sound ignorant but like I said, it’s my first camper. Any help appreciated. Attachment 186289

You say "inverter". Does it have a residential fridge? If it does, it won't power the outlets, only the fridge.
The a/c will NOT run on battery power.

And did your dealer do a lousy PDI/walkthrough because a lot of your questions should have been covered.

Suggest that you Google "the 12 Volt Side of Life". It'll help explain how the two different electrical systems work in your RV.

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by bikendan

You say "inverter". Does it have a residential fridge?

It has an inverter and converter. It is a residential fridge though.

[emoney]

Your slide, awning, lights and water pump are all on the battery. You may also have usb plugs that will be connected to the battery as well. You also have the LP system controlling the furnace, hot water heater and cook top. The water heater can also be 2 way and if nothing else may need electric to start. I’d recommend reading every manual they gave you. Honestly the sales or technicians should’ve gone over each system

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by emoney

Your slide, awning, lights and water pump are all on the battery. You may also have usb plugs that will be connected to the battery as well. You also have the LP system controlling the furnace, hot water heater and cook top. The water heater can also be 2 way and if nothing else may need electric to start. I’d recommend reading every manual they gave you. Honestly the sales or technicians should’ve gone over each system

They did. I don’t retain info well unless I’m reading it. [emoji53]

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by bikendan

You say "inverter". Does it have a residential fridge? If it does, it won't power the outlets, only the fridge.
The a/c will NOT run on battery power.

And did your dealer do a lousy PDI/walkthrough because a lot of your questions should have been covered.

Suggest that you Google "the 12 Volt Side of Life". It'll help explain how the two different electrical systems work in your RV.

They did a good job going over everything, unfortunately I don’t retain info very well if I don’t read it or write it down. Failure on my part. I remembered most of everything about what not to run while on 110, just couldn’t remember what all ran off the batteries. Thanks for everything. I’ll Google that.

[bikendan]

Well, it's too late to help you but we recommend that you video the walkthrough, especially for those completely new to RVs.

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Well, it's too late to help you but we recommend that you video the walkthrough, especially for those completely new to RVs.

[emoji1360]

[tomkatb]

Being real here.

Any rv is a comparatively complicated thing. You got to be sort of handy.

Lots of gotchas. And that sewer thing. All to have your own Potti.

You know you need to plug in every day. The fridge thing. Or get lots more batteries.

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by tomkatb

Being real here.



Any rv is a comparatively complicated thing. You got to be sort of handy.



Lots of gotchas. And that sewer thing. All to have your own Potti.



You know you need to plug in every day. The fridge thing. Or get lots more batteries.

I’ll get it all figured out. No worries. Thanks for the info!

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Longwhiskers

It has an inverter and converter. It is a residential fridge though.

Well, you should have a dual battery setup at least.
Unless you always camp with electric hookups.

[CHICKDOE]

nice looking trailer. hope you enjoy it. as mentioned above there are two separate electrical systems in the trailer. the 120 volt ac system is just like what you have at home and it runs things like a/c, residential refrigerator, outlets (some will be gfci's), converter, electric side of water heater, tv's (though there are 12 volt dc tv's), and electric fireplaces / heaters. then 120 volt system is just like your house. you plug your power cable into a power source (park power pedestal or generator) and power comes into a small circuit breaker panel and from there it is sent out on the various branch circuits.

the 12 volt dc system is used to run many devices such as lights, furnace, a/c thermostat, awning motors, slide motors, vent fans, gas ignitor on gas portion of the water heater, and emergency brakes while towing. basically it is just like the various electric devices in your car such as power seats, windows, lights, etc. this system is designed to take 12 volt dc power from your trailer batteries, run it through a fuse panel, and then it is sent the individual wires to run these devices. the 120 vac and the 12 vdc systems are completely separate from each other with two exceptions.

the first is the converter. this takes 120 vac power from the 120 distribution panel and converts it to 12 vdc power which is used to recharge the batteries. the important point is that you will run your batteries down unless you can supply 110 vac power and run the converter to recharge the batteries.

the second device is the inverter. it takes 12 vdc power from the batteries and changes it to 120 vac power. typically this is sent to the refrigerator only and is used to keep the refrigerator running when there is no 120 vac power available. the important point here is that your battery power is limited and a refrigerator will use it up pretty fast. when the battery power gets down to a set limit, the inverter will shut off and the refrigerator will have no power to run on. you must have a way to recharge the batteries periodically (shore power, generator, solar). also note that if you have 120 vac power to recharge the batteries, it will also be available to run the generator at the same time. you only need the inverter when you do not have 120 vac present.


there are many more topics relating to these two electrical systems. get yourself a pot of coffee and spend some time reading all the posts either on this forum or at other reliable internet resources.

again congratulations on the trailer. we want you to understand how it works so you can get maximum enjoyment from it.

[Longwhiskers]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Well, you should have a dual battery setup at least.
Unless you always camp with electric hookups.

It is dual batteries. Plan on getting a generator, but will stick with hook ups till then.