House Battery info needed please

[Dog Quilt Lady]

Hello all, living in my Ford Transit Van, have a Jackery 500 and one solar panel, this has worked to provide enough power for the fridge plus, but the days of sun are getting shorter and I feel it would be wise to invest in a "house battery". Have read about "house battery" but really do not understand much, is the house battery set up to charge the Jackery, or do you not use the Jackery if you have a house battery ??? Any and all info is appreciated - Thanks much.  Will be leaving Montana by Oct 1st, and heading towards Arizona, looking forward to visiting in Yuma, Quartzsite or ...

 

[hugemoth]

No Jackery for me, just a Walmart group 29 RV battery and a $13 Chinese charge controller. Also have a 750 watt HF inverter wired in. Does everything I need.

 

[jonyjoe303]

The solar panel will charge the house battery and the house battery will top off the jackery.
How large is the solar panel? For winter a larger panel will work better to keep the house battery fully charged. Last winter I was using a 240 watt panel to try and charge a 220ah lifepo4 and a 312ah li-ion, it was barely doing the job to keep both batteries at 10 percent. The 240 watt panel was putting out about 9 amps, just barely enough to replace the power being used. I almost had to unplug my fridge to try to fully charge my batteries.
I finally replace the 240 watt panel with a 365 watt panel, in winter the 365 watt was putting out 15 amps. 15 amps is plenty to keep both battery banks fully charged in winter and run the fridge. In summer the 365 watts puts out up to 27 amps.
If you can get a larger panel it will work alot better in winter and overcast days. You won't regret getting a larger panel to keep your house battery fully charged.

 

[dhuff]

Hello all, living in my Ford Transit Van, have a Jackery 500 and one solar panel, this has worked to provide enough power for the fridge plus, but the days of sun are getting shorter and I feel it would be wise to invest in a "house battery"...

Nothing wrong with the house battery idea, but you are also charging the Jackery with the 12V "cigarette lighter" plug on the van when you're driving, yes ? As for any house battery, I'd also suggest installing a DC-DC charger for it, so you could use your alternator to charge the battery while you're driving.