House battery questions

[wannaSMB]

Peter at SMB told me that a house battery should last about 2 days without any recharge while dry camping. We took our "new-to-us" '99 SMB camping last wknd for an overnight, and were parked for maybe 14 hours. We ran only the fridge, a little white-noise maker for our girls while sleeping, and some reading lights for a few hours. At the end of the 14 hours, the digital voltmeter (plugged into a dc outlet) was reading 7.1v, and only the "red" of the "red, yellow, green" lights was on.

Do I have a bad battery or does that sound normal? Did I turn a good battery into a bad battery by running it down so much?

Any other thoughts?

Thanks for imparting wisdom to my poor ignorant self.

[Ford_6L_E350]

Was that a new battery fully charged, or an older battery in unknown condition?


According to the website, a new Group 24 Lifeline battery should deliver 8 amps for 524 minutes (8 Hours 44 minutes).

Not knowing the make and model of your refrig, I'll base this on my refrig. It draws 2 amps when it runs. And they can run about 50% of the time or an average of 1 amp.

Reading lamps can draw a lot of power. Approximately 1 amp/bulb. That could be 3-8 amps. The white noise generator is an unknown. It could be a couple of amps.

The life you got could be within limits of a new battery, and certainly not abnormal for a used battery.

Get a charger, 5 amps or so and recharge the battery slowly for a day and see how it does. As long as it didn't sit discharged for a long time it should recover.

I'd suggest you change your reading lights to LED bulbs. The current draw is measured in hundredths and tenths of amps, not in amps. Even the fluorescent lamps draw significant power, lots more than LED bulbs.

There are other threads on this site about more insulation for the refrig. I put 1/2" foil backed foam insulation around the outside of mine and cut the run time about in half. And it made it quieter at the same time.

Good luck,

Mike

[wannaSMB]

Thanks Mike. Definitely not a new battery. The vehicle currently has 104k miles on it, and the starter battery (maybe batteries) was changed at 90k. No information on the house batt., so may never have been changed.

I will look for LED bulbs (anyone know which ones replace the stock SMB reading light bulbs?). I will have some leftover Reflectix: is that a decent material to use for the fridge?

Thanks!

[fmiles]

I put the 1156x19 bulbs in available from:
http://superbrightleds.com/tail-brake-turn.html
They are a little on the blue side of the spectrum typical of LED falshlights. If I was going to do it over I would try the 1156x30 for the extra brightness.

Cheers
/~fred

[Ford_6L_E350]

Here is a thread about insulation, with a link to another site with more information about it.

Mike

[daveb]

I originally had a single 210 amp hour house battery. Typically I could run the refrigerator from dark to morning while also using a reading light for a couple of hours. I would also run the water heater for 2 hours sometime during the night and it pulls about the same or slightly more as a florescent light. The battery would be about 1/2 way down and if I used the heater at night it would drop about 1/4 more on cold nights. The only time I took the battery below 10.5 volts was when I turned on the outside light and left it on for about 6hours. That didn’t seem like enough for me so I added a second battery. AGM batteries don’t like being subjected to voltages below 10.2 V so avoid this if possible. Good to invest in a digital volt meter if you get a new battery. Also I don’t know what your sound device runs off of, but an inverter will pull juice even if it’s not operating anything. So if you have to run something that needs AC it will pull a few amps more than the device itself. My 2000 w inverter pulls about 3 amps when its on and not running anything. Somewhere on this site is a chart showing voltage vs %.
DaveB

[Greggd]

wannasmb ,
Go to this web site for the LED lights , I have spent in excess of $370.00 on LED's being changed out and the source that has provided the widest selection and without a doubt the brightest and lowest drawing bulbs have come from www.LEDLite.com . This is based on tests with a Luna Light meter and Voltmeter . They have a large selection and if you become confused as I did just give them a call with the bulb numbers that you are changing out and they will provide the correct replacement bulb . I ordered three more Festoon Bulbs yesterday for the very rear courtesy light on our EB-50 and they will be here Monday because they stock all that they sell and are located in Chandler , Arizona .
Greggde

[Ford_6L_E350]

I've bought LED lights from these guys:

http://www.superbrightleds.com/1157.htm

Click on the picture of the light for more information.

Mike