Community Forums

Arizona Lizards · 11-04-2015, 07:32 PM

Hello,

2013 ACE 30.1
Has anyone run the house heater at night using only the 12V system? We would like to be able to boon dock some this winter, and use the house heater without running the generator all night. Has anyone done this? Were you able to run the heater all night without completely running the house batteries down?
As always thanks for any help.

BFlinn181 · 11-04-2015, 07:41 PM

How many house batteries in the RV? Usually having 2 healthy 12 v batteries will last a full night of furnace use - - If you're not using the same batteries for TV, incandescent lights, inverter, etc. If you have a boost switch on the dash, even if the house batteries get low overnight you can tie in the chassis batteries and start the generator to charge things back up.

Arizona Lizards · 11-04-2015, 11:06 PM

Thanks for the reply, BFlynn. We have 2 12 volt house batteries, installed this last April. We would keep the gen set running until almost bedtime, then rely on the house batteries to keep us going till morning. I thought it should work, just wanted to check with others.

H3OHIO · 11-05-2015, 04:24 AM

Yes, you'll be fine. Our old RV only had 1 battery and the furnace would run all night with no problem.

triplewide · 11-06-2015, 04:48 AM

Have run our 29.3 furnace at night a few times with no problem. Depends on how much other stuff you are running, battery condition, quantity of batteries.

If you boon dock often, you may want to add a third battery. I was able to add a third adjacent to the factory installed two. Fit perfectly, cost was about $100 for battery and cables. Also added an easy fill kit to allow filling water in batteries with out removing or accessing caps. This was about as much as the additional battery but makes checking/filling battery water levels super easy.

Arizona Lizards · 11-06-2015, 09:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3OHIO

Yes, you'll be fine. Our old RV only had 1 battery and the furnace would run all night with no problem.

Thanks, we thought we would be. Just wanted to be sure.

Arizona Lizards · 11-06-2015, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by triplewide

Have run our 29.3 furnace at night a few times with no problem. Depends on how much other stuff you are running, battery condition, quantity of batteries.

If you boon dock often, you may want to add a third battery. I was able to add a third adjacent to the factory installed two. Fit perfectly, cost was about $100 for battery and cables. Also added an easy fill kit to allow filling water in batteries with out removing or accessing caps. This was about as much as the additional battery but makes checking/filling battery water levels super easy.

Now that is interesting. We'll have to see if another battery will fit, as we would like to boondock quite a bit. We have the easy fill on the two we have now, does help filling them.

mgscott4 · 11-07-2015, 05:57 AM

One of the best upgrades I performed on my MH was the addition of a good battery monitor. A green, yellow, red led is not a battery monitor. This one keeps track of every .10th of an amp in or out of the batteries, (SOC) State of Charge (percent full), it can monitor both coach and chassis batteries. For me, piece of mind knowing my batteries are OK is worth the cost. It also makes it easy to troubleshoot when (not if) you do have an electrical problem. Look around and you can get this one for about $200 with the shunt and wiring. I am very happy with the older Rv2025 model.

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