how long will 12 v battery run heater

[Englishmc]

We are dry camping in Colorado. How long will heater run off a full propane tank and 12 v battery. Say it is 30 degrees outside and we want in 65 degrees in camper.?

[bikendan]

without a generator or solar system, probably one night.

[f5moab]

Size and type of trailer and battery is really needed. I have a 12 foot popup and can easily run the heater for four nights, temps from 26-32, set at around 55 but I have two 27 deep cycle batteries.

[dcheatwood]

Depending on outside temp, battery size & charge, thermostat setting and a few other things. My 26' TT ran all night in 35-40° weather set at about 68°. My 29' wildcat 5er lasted about 6-8 hrs. My 32' rockwood will last 8-10.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by Englishmc

We are dry camping in Colorado. How long will heater run off a full propane tank and 12 v battery. Say it is 30 degrees outside and we want in 65 degrees in camper.?

Buy or rent a small Gen! Youroo!!

[Ken K.]

Originally Posted by Englishmc

We are dry camping in Colorado. How long will heater run off a full propane tank and 12 v battery. Say it is 30 degrees outside and we want in 65 degrees in camper.?

I think the Amp Hours in your battery and the size of your propane tank, as well as the efficiency of your heater have a lot to do with this question. I would honestly say no one on here can tell you an exact answer. i see 1 night in response to this question a lot. I think there are to many variables to give you an answer. The only reasonable response is; Set it up in your back yard or driveway and run it and see. I bought a larger battery rack for the front hitch frame of my trailer so I could have extended dry camping time. I bought the largest deep cycle batteries possible for the size of the frame. I also welded on a frame to hold not one but 2 30 lb tanks. So I can go for 4-5 days if I'm careful. So you see it's all relative to what you have and what you do. Good Luck!

[wnelsonfl]

You can run the tow vehicle for awhile

[HONDAMAN174]

You could always use a little buddy propane heater. We would use it in conjunction with the furnace and the furnace would not run as much. Being you are in a pop up, the "exhaust" gases will find a way out of your unit and have fresh air coming in. I put mine ON LOW right next to CO2 detector and never had an alarm. You can get about 6 hrs out of a 1lb can or get the 12 ft hose and run to your main tank and use a tee.

When we camped in low temps, the most temp difference we could get was 25 degrees between inside and out- just not enough insulation.

[DickiedooFlagman]

The heater fan draws about 7-8 Ah when it is running. A single group 24 battery has about 95 Ah when fully charged, and should only be drawn down 50% otherwise its useful life will be reduced. If the heater fan runs 7 hours continuously, it will deplete the single battery by 50%. If the fan runs 1/2 the time, it will deplete the battery to 50% in 14 hours. More batteries in the battery bank will extend the run time. Other 12v devices will reduce the available Ah. (water pump, lighting, etc.) In reality, you can expect about 1 night with one battery without charging the battery.

[oldtool2]

Originally Posted by Englishmc

We are dry camping in Colorado. How long will heater run off a full propane tank and 12 v battery. Say it is 30 degrees outside and we want in 65 degrees in camper.?

You really don't give enough information. We need to know what type of trailer you have, how big is it and what size is your heater? Also what size is your battery?

I have a 32 foot 5er with two 30 pound propane tanks and two 100 ah batteries. My furnace is a 30,000 btu furnace and I would never expect to get more than two nights before having to charge the batteries. There are 3 basic ways to charge your batteries. First a small generator. This is probably the quickest way. Second is solar. A great method if you have some sun to work with. Last is off your tow vehicle. This is the most expensive and will take the longest if you use the towing cable and the converter. You can cut this time and cost if you use jumper cables and hook up battery to battery. Be careful though and watch your water level in wet cell batteries.

A friend of mine put a nice system in to charge his battery from his truck. He put in a switch to disconnect his truck battery. He would start the truck, flip the switch then hook up cables to charge the trailer battery. This way he only had one battery hooked up to his alternator at a time. He only had one problem, his truck was a gas hog!

Hope this helps.

Jim

[phillyg]

My single battery would not last overnight. Two 12v hybrid start/marine/RV batteries can do it.

[oldtool2]

Originally Posted by phillyg

My single battery would not last overnight. Two 12v hybrid start/marine/RV batteries can do it.

Depending on the load but no matter what it needs to be a big battery in good condition. There is quite a bit of load people don/t think about. The fridge, CO2 detector, stereo system, tv and lighting for just a few things. LED lights are a big help cutting light load by 80 to 90%.

Jim