how long Generator to charge batteries ?

[powerboatr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by John Hilley Your battery isolator solenoid has probably failed, a common problem.

i didnt even think of that
add another item to the upcoming warranty trip

[Ray,IN]

Using the coach engine to re-charge house batteries while parked is a huge waste of resources(your money). What you are actually doing is using a 300+HP battery charger, which, BTW cannot be low- idled to obtain an acceptable charge rate. I feel is is much more efficient to buy a 20A( you can even buy a 40A fast-charger) automotive battery charger and plug it into the genset external outlets.

[wa8yxm]

How long to re-charge depends on several things

How low are the batteries (I will assume 50 percent for this example)
How much converter do you have (I will assume 100 amp for this example)

How much other load is on the converter (I'll assume none)

now, you have, as someone pointed out about 450 amp hours of battery (I'd use 440 normally but hey, why argue, over less than 10%) so that means you need to replace 225 amp hours

At 100 amps (A good charge rate, 130 is peak but the Prosine 2.0 can only kick 100) to get from 50 to 90 percent will take

(450*0.4*1.1/100) hours or about 2 hours... (1.98)

Now to get that last 10 percent takes around 4 to six hours more

You have a smaller converter.. The "Time to 90%" changes

You have other loads. again the "Time to 90%" changes

The last 10 percent won't change much unless the charger is very very small (like a 10 amp)

[HMXDave]

Our camping is 95% boondocking...we only use hookups 1 trip per season. On my last two TT's and my last class A we always stuck to a similar pattern. We have no inverter....so the genny is run for about 1 to 2 hours every AM for coffee, breakfast, TV news, etc. Then I usually run it for 2 hrs before bed for TV, margurita mixer, microwave snacks, etc. The furnace runs pretty much steady in the spring and fall around here. Never killed the batteries yet. Used to have 2 x 12volts on the TT's and my last class A had the same. The new class A has 2 x 6 volt batts....I hope it works the same.