How big is your battery bank?

[field & stream]

Originally Posted by Boondocker

Also not looking for fights over what type battery is superior.

Totally agree about not debating battery types, but it is very helpful to know what type is the system due to the difference in usable Ah’s.

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by field & stream

It sometimes looks like more power than “needed”, but there is another HUGE variable here that rarely gets mentioned on this site: How much electrical power do you consume in a day?

In some recent comments a number of members have described their conservative use as being in the range of 50-80 Ah per day. I’m not knocking that, and I know that we are extremely low users, but their conservative use is ten times what we use! (Our vintage trailer doesn’t even have a battery.)

Folks whose style puts them on the higher end of the range do “need” solar and storage also on the high end.

I think the beauty of this thread is that it illustrates the full range of what people are doing, and what can be done.

Hi

With the "modern" trailers and vans ( from all brands, not just AS) going more and more electric intensive, the "conservative" number creeps up. No matter what you do, if your compressor fridge pulls an average of 3A, you are going to use 72AH in a day. Other than turning off the fridge, there's not much you can do about it. For me, warm beer is not a viable option

Back in the day, that same "can't do anything about it" level might have been 12AH to 24AH. What made sense "way back then" ( maybe 2015 .. ) no longer is going to work very well.

As these newer designs become a larger part of the RV population the size of the average battery bank will indeed go up. It's probably a bit early in terms of "Airstream years" on the trailers to really see the impact of this ( = AS is a bit late to this party compared to other brands). If we re-ran the poll in a few years, it would be interesting to look at the model year vs battery size.

Bob

[Hermes]

In sunny summer like conditions we need a fraction of what we have, but I sized my capacity for the shoulder seasons when you don't get sun every day, or the sun is lower in intensity and you need to run your furnace more often. Monocrystallin panels perform better in these conditions and produce more amps when they're cold but you still need sufficient storage capacity to carry you for a few days.

[Pizzaman276]

Not sure if this is the thread or if you can point me to the right one.
I would like to add one more 100 mah to my setup. Do I need to upgrade anything else in the system?
I currently have 200 mah battle borne.

Thanks for the help

[uncle_bob]

Originally Posted by Pizzaman276

Not sure if this is the thread or if you can point me to the right one.
I would like to add one more 100 mah to my setup. Do I need to upgrade anything else in the system?
I currently have 200 mah battle borne.

Thanks for the help

Hi

Hopefully we're talking about 100AH (amp hours) and not MAH ( milliamp hours )

Other than wire and finding space, there isn't much involved in adding more batteries. As long as you use same / same it should work ok. It's better to do it all with the same date code, but with add on's that may not be possible.

Bob

[Hermes]

Originally Posted by Pizzaman276

Not sure if this is the thread or if you can point me to the right one.
I would like to add one more 100 mah to my setup. Do I need to upgrade anything else in the system?
I currently have 200 mah battle borne.

Thanks for the help

If you are adding the same type of battery you shouldn't have a problem keeping the rest of the setup as is.

[Pizzaman276]

Thanks uncle bob and Hermes! Sorry about the MAH…was thinking about large RC batteries I use….MAH wouldn’t get me too far!