cdt5058 Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 Hey All, Now that I got my house electrical working off of a battery, I've been able to play around a bit. I've now run into a couple questions that I cannot seem to find an answer for and could use some help & guidance. The setup right now is 400W in solar panels (originally spec'd out 200W but Amazon sent me a free set due to a shipping error), a 2000W inverter, two 6V Trojan T-105 batteries, and one 12V 24DC-1 battery (long story on why I still have this one). Can the inverter power an electric only water heater? (Like this one) Can I hook up the three batteries to be the battery bank even though they are different volts? From what I learned in University, I should be able to connect the 6V batteries in Series and then connect the other 12V battery in parallel. Giving me ~300 Amp hours or so of total capacity. My Sunrader has no stock water heater, water pump, or water storage container. So, I'm starting that whole system from scratch. I'm concerned about the electric only water heater because I'm unfamiliar with how they work. I see that the one I linked draws 1440 Watt. Would this be the operating wattage? Startup watts required? etc... Curious if anyone else has one of these installed in their Toy. Any help or advice is appreciated. -Cory Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WME Posted July 3, 2016 Share Posted July 3, 2016 (edited) 1.A heating element is pure load, no start up surge 2.Yes you can hookup your batteries as you want too. But they would be mismatched and you would shorten their life span 3. A 1440w 110v AC load would require about 150 AMPS from your batteries. So your batteries could safely run your water heater for 1 hour. 4. Under perfect conditions it would take your panels 7 hr to recharge your batteries. Reality says 12 hours of "real sun light". There is a reason things are designed in RV the way they are. Plan B stay in rv parks and run your heater of the camp power. Edited July 4, 2016 by WME Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 For a $100 more you can buy a new water heater that will fit right in How are you going to get water to the heater(either one) with out a pump or storage tank? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 You would need around 10 one-hundred watt panels running in good sun for 6 hours - to power your electric water-heater for 2 hours of actual heating time. Not a great idea unless you live in an area of incredible sun and cover your entire roof plus add extensions to fit 10 panels. I know two barely fit on my roof. If I wanted solar to heat my domestic water - I'd just have some black plastic water-hoses on my roof and make a passive solar-hot-water system. It would be much effective then a solar-electric would to heat water. Do you sit in one place a lot or travel stop-and-go? I don't care about having hot-water and took my heater out. If I DID want hot-water available all the time - and enougn to take a shower - I'd have the propane 6 gallon unit. If I wanted less - I'd use a water-storage tank that gets heated by the engine in my RV - like Winnebago has used in several RVs. This way whenever you drive - your water is automatically heated. Just have to use it soon after parking or it will slowly cool off. I have one I'll sell you cheap. It is 6 gallon and has dual-heating. One source is from your engine and the other is 1500 watts @ 120 volts AC when grid power is available. Tanks aluminum and not steel so can't rust. I guess it could corrode over time. I was going to put in into my Chinook back when I wanted my Chinook to have every convenience known to man. Now - I've decided to try to keep it light and retain some of its original "charm." If interested, let me know. I am never going to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linda s Posted July 4, 2016 Share Posted July 4, 2016 I've never used my water heater either. Most campgrounds have showers. Linda S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmowrey Posted July 5, 2016 Share Posted July 5, 2016 (edited) Why electric only for the water heater? They make a propane/electric option. They don't use all that much propane, assuming you get one that is pilotless and can be turned on and off from inside the coach. We generally turn ours on when we start breakfast in the morning. It heats the water up in a jiffy, then we turn it off. There's enough hot water in there to wash the breakfast dishes, then it stays hot all day in case we need hot water. Same at dinner time. Turn it on to heat the water, then turn it off and we have hot water through the night. We can even get one shower out of the dinner time heat up. I know there are some folks who camp without hot water. Easy enough to do, of course. But we enjoy the luxury of it. Plus, for me, I just kinda like the idea of it. All the comforts of home! More or less. Edited July 5, 2016 by jmowrey typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdt5058 Posted July 14, 2016 Author Share Posted July 14, 2016 Sorry for the super delayed response, was down in New Orleans for an extended break from technology (aside from work). @WME - You bring up good points. I don't think that we'd need to run the heater for an hour. Depending on how well the holding tank is insulted, I would wonder if I could heat for only a fraction of that time and then store the hot/warm water until we needed it. You wouldn't happen to know how much quicker the batteries would die if combined? @Maineah - Getting water to the heater hasn't been thought about yet. This was more a hypothetical/crazy question I had while thinking about the whole system. @jdemaris - I was contemplating adding wings to the Sunrader so it could fly, perhaps I could mount the panels there... Seriously, though, I'll keep you in mind when designing out the water system regarding that Atwood aux heat exchanger. @linda s - Fair point. We're looking at doing a fair bit of boondocking away from campsites. Glad to know most sites have showers tho. @jmowrey - Why electric? I dunno, just a hairbrained idea. Curious to hear what other people thought about it. That's good to hear about it keeping the water hot all day. What water heater do you happen to have? I think this was more of a hypothetical question/bat-shit-crazy-thought I had while working in the 92* heat. Thanks for the replies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whyverne14 Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Does the stove work? Get a metal whistling tea pot and heat your water there. Take a sponge bath in the sink. That's what I do in the winter when I have the water turned off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdt5058 Posted July 14, 2016 Author Share Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) @whyverne14 - The jury is still out on that. I need to replace the regulator and connecting hose in the propane bay in order to fully test the propane system. To expand on that answer, the stove/sink unit is flexing away from the wall, so, I need to figure out if the floor is sagging or if it's something else. I might rip up the shoddy carpet and see what I'm working with. Just for an update, I just picked up a Suburban SW6D DSI 6-gallon water heater off of eBay for $150 shipped. Looking to snag an access/vent door in the next day or so and then hopefully install it in the next month. Edited July 14, 2016 by cdt5058 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 10 hours ago, cdt5058 said: Fair point. We're looking at doing a fair bit of boondocking away from campsites. There is the allure of solar and the reality when it comes to RV's For most, it makes a good supplemental energy system but rarely the sole energy system. I don't have solar, have a single battery and can make it 4-5 days but with propane doing the heavy lifting of heating my water and running my fridge. I run out of water and waste storage before energy most trips. Heating water with an electric heater off grid, makes about as much sense as using an electric hot plate to do your cooking rather than even a portable camp stove. You've got a rolling house that has limitations as to what it can carry and adding a huge multi-battery set with enough solar to keep it charged up is impractical with a small RV. I've reduced my power usage by adding efficiency such as LED lights. If I were to add solar and another battery, it would only be for the purpose of being able to run my stereo more. I see you've just updated the post. Looks like propane it is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Back East Don Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 Suburban Water heater Doors Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linda s Posted July 14, 2016 Share Posted July 14, 2016 EBay has lots of doors too. Linda S Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdt5058 Posted July 14, 2016 Author Share Posted July 14, 2016 (edited) Thanks for the link @Back East Don. I submitted an offer for a door on eBay as well as inquired about a few other items (water pump, propane/CO alarm, celing vent/fan, etc). I need to just stop buying items for the van and actually spend a good week installing/fabricating eveything. The agenda for this weekend is - Clean battery isolator connections & figure out why it's not charging the batteries under the hood. It sends a charge to the house batteries A-OK. I found an older post here that I'm going to reference. Clean plexiglass windows in the overcab. Outside of them are super hazy & translucent. Any tips would be appreciated. Finish putting in screens (rear windows only) Finish installing LED lights and domes Maybe - Figure out if ceiling fan is getting power. Does anyone know if this runs on the 12V house battery? Perhaps I should start a running thread in General Discussion to keep track of all my progress on the RV... Edit - Forgot that I already had a thread created here for tracking progress. Edited July 14, 2016 by cdt5058 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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