OT: battery power and generation

[Darrin Chandler]

On Mon, Sep 18, 2006 at 10:43:44AM -0700, Nathan England wrote:
> 
> All,
> 
> I live in a travel trailer full time and move from place to place. I always 
> hook up to power at the camp ground / trailer park and have never needed to 
> use my batteries unless the power goes out, which in northern AZ is quite 
> often. 
> 
> Anyway, I want to start using my batteries more and not paying APS for 
> electric, so I am looking into solar generation or a gas generator to 
> supplement. But I am completely ignorant of the way power works or what 
> amp/hours means and all that.
> 
> I have two 12volt deep cycle batteries, what do I need to charge them and how 
> long could it take to charge them?
> 
> I know I could ask this on an RV forum, but being a tech junkie, and you all 
> as well, I'm assuming someone will know some tricks so I could possibly build 
> something myself... Possibly creating an interface to my computer to 
> monitor/control any of this.

I looked into solar chargers a while ago, and the bottom line is that it
takes a lot to provide enough power to run much on. A lot meaning money
and surface area. Most of the stuff out there for RV/marine is meant to
recharge and keep charge on seldom used storage batteries.

Do you have to switch over between A/C and battery, or can you just
plug/unplug whenever you feel like it? If you don't have to switch over
then it should be pretty easy to add solar to the mix to reduce your
electric usage.

FYI, I am NOT an expert at this. I just did some reading on the net.

-- 
Darrin Chandler            |  Phoenix BSD Users Group
dwchandler at stilyagin.com   |  http://bsd.phoenix.az.us/
http://www.stilyagin.com/  |