#Best battery for boondocking update#

That's beyond the scope of this article, but there is plenty of information out there if you want to read about heat pumps. Your battery is running equipment that draws heat out of the outside air. The reason this method works so well is you're not actually using electricity to produce heat. This means around 10 amps from a 12V battery which could make it possible to heat a camper overnight with a single 100AH battery if it's well insulated. There are some mini splits that only draw a little over 100 watts on their lowest speed. This means they can just slightly increase their current draw long enough to maintain the temperature before any real amount of heat is lost, and they're making efficient use of the electricity. Once the desired room temperature is reached a mini split reduces its speed drawing very little power in comparison to an electric heater and only increases its output enough to maintain that temperature. While a small one will require 40 or 50 amps from the battery for a few minutes. The option I think will have the best chance of heating overnight on a single battery is a mini split. There are oil filled heaters that draw 600 watts so in a well insolated small camper one might cover you overnight on a single battery depending on how long it has to be on during each cycle.

A friend of mine has one of those heaters he says heats for a good 15 minutes after the room reaches the desired temperature and the heater turns off and turns on again before the heater is completely cold. In the future I'll be trying this test with an oil filled heater I plan to get which should give more time because when the heater is off the hot oil is still producing heat. However, there are two other alternatives that might still work with a single 100AH battery. That would use up 100AH in less than two hours even if you had a battery that could handle the 1500 watt draw for the first cycle.Ĭlearly for overnight heating with a resistance heater you will need more than one 100AH battery. Some ceramic disk heaters reduce their output instead of turning off and then increase their output to try to compensate for heat loss, but most of them require 1500 watts and still draw around 600 watts on their lowest heat output. Considering a camper has a much lower ceiling and most have less draft than the room I tested in had you might get a little longer, but you're still loosing heat when the heater is off. The issue with this kind of heater is when it's off your camper is cooling down because there's no heat being added. The battery died five hours and thirty five minutes later, but the heaters total runtime was well under two hours. After the first 10 minute cycle it didn't run very long during the following cycles.

The room was 63 degrees when I turned the heater on. I was pulling 67 amps from the battery when the heater was running. I kept the room at 73 degrees when the outside temperature was in the mid forties. I used a 700 watt heater to heat a small bedroom that's about the size of a small camper with the exception the ceiling is higher. Resistance heaters are the kind most people will probably want to use. If you're in temperatures above freezing they work well and there are some that can work well below freezing with some efficiency loss. I don't have one yet but I know people that do, how much heat they get from them and what it cost them to run their heat pump. There are a few mini splits that can't be used as a heat pump so make sure the one you consider can be.Ī heat pump is the most efficient way to heat with electricity.

Before getting into this I will tell you if you're in temperatures it will work in a mini split that can also be used as a heat pump will give you the best bang for your buck. Let's begin with using electricity to heat your camper.

#Best battery for boondocking update#

In the future I will update this article for those using a larger battery bank. under your specific conditions.įor this article I will be using a Rebel Batteries 12V 100AH RV battery because most of the people with small campers I talk to have a single battery. What I can do is give you some tips for getting the most time out of your battery and the information you will need to figure out how long will an RV battery last boondocking. There's no short and sweet answer to how long a RV battery will last boon docking because everyone has different power needs.