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Ive found some great info since I know what to look for now. Pretty help full to me maybe some ealse might benefit from the resources..
Artical on "power surges"
http://vandwellers.org/poopsheets/surge.htm
This website Has all kinds of information on RV power sources. Since Im scaling this down, allot of this is quite excessive. Since I wont have microwaves, and power draining devices. where they need 400+ Amp Hours.
http://www.macandchris.com/RVBatteries.htm
I do have another question. Whats more effiecent DC or AC? Wouldnt an inverter or converter just zap all the juice from your cells?
Microwaves use next to nothing. Their current draw is high when running so it's good to have a bank of at least 2 because of it but since you only run them for a few minutes at a time they won't hardly make a dent in the bank reserve. 800w/12 = 66.66 amps per hour. 66.66A/60 minutes equals 1.11 amps per minute.
You're not flying a space shuttle to saturn so there's no sense in buying ridiculously overkill equipment the salesmen pushed. A couple flooded lead acids, a modified sinewave inverter and a couple hundred watts of solar. $700-800 will take care of all your energy needs.
It's a pet peeve of mine when these guys riding in 6 figure motorhomes with 6 figure bank accounts, portfolio's, medicare and drawing social security keep spouting this crap about "unless you need to cut corners buy the $1,000 inverter to run your $30 microwave and a laptop." It's complete bullshit. Pure sinewave inverters are relatively new on the scene only there for people running serious audio/video recording studios or CPAP oxygen machines. And even then they really aren't needed most of the time. Buying one for vandwelling is beyond absurd.
It's the "I have to absolutely have the best for no rational reason" syndrome.
All their reasoning is just an elaborate rationalization for buying something they never actually needed in the first place. A sales pitch rationale.
AC to DC - again there's inefficiencies in the conversion process but they're very minor (1-5%). Otherwise energy is energy and it doesn't matter. I use 12v products like a fleece heating blanket and small fan. I also use 120v for my laptop, charging camera batteries, etc.
Thank you Ped! I didn't realize that there could be such a large difference in AH on a 6v deep cycle. I run a single 12v with 114AH and it cost me a pretty penny, but now I'm wishing I had looked for a 6v setup.... is 200AH common for a 6v battery?
Yes that's typical. 200-220AH. You have to buy 2 6v to get 12v and they're the same price as a 100AH 12v so it's all equal in the end.
