RV-Hopeful said:
doesn't the battery stay charged throughout the evening?
Well, if nothing is turned on during the night, then yes, it will be at the same charge in the morning.
This is why we are sort of at the next step in the practical numbers and research of the numbers as they are used to express energy and energy consumption.
When we live in a house (or anything that is hooked up to the grid), then we basically give our appliances (and energy consumption) hardly any second thoughts. We basically plug it in, and expect it to work, and the only time we think much about how much energy we have used, is when we need to pay the electric bill. And how often does that happen? Where I live it is every three months.
When living off grid, attention needs to be given at least every day. And when things are first plugged in, attention is needed about every hour, until one learns how much each item affects the energy system.
That is a very big change in attention needed.
One way to adjust to understanding the energy numbers, whiles till living at home, could be to do a daily read of the electric house meter.
Another way could be to get one of those kill-a-watt meters, that can be plugged into any electric outlet, and then you plugg the appliance into the back of the kill-a-watt unit. And the kill-a-watt meter will then be able to tell you how much energy is being used, right now, and every hour, and as long as a device is plugged in. And how many watt hours (Wh) (or kilo Watt hours - kWh) has been used while you used the the appliance.
watt hours (Wh) can be directly translated into how many Ah (amp hours) the same activity would use from your battery.
You say that you have already used many many hours and days to study videos etc.
Are you ready to use perhaps one hour (possibly less) to get a presentation of how you can easily connect and compare; watt and amps, and watt hours (Wh) and amp hours (Ah)?
The connection between watt, volt and amps is: Watt = Volt x Amp
If you have for exampl 50Ah that you can use from your 12V battery, this is the same 50Ah x 12V = 600Wh.
So if your appliance uses 600W it can be run for ONE hour, and then your battery is depleted.
Or if your desktop computer uses 100W to run, the it can be run for 6 hours and your 600Wh (or 50Ah) in your battery is completely depleted.
If you TV uses for instance 35W to tun, then 600Wh will be cone after watching TV for 600 / 35 = 17 hours.
If you need both your PC and your TV on to actually use your computer, then you will be using 100W + 35 W = 135W to actually use your computer. Then you can do that activity for 600Wh / 135W = 4.4 hours and you PC day is over.
If you have a 200Ah battery bank, you can use only 100Ah from the bank, until the battery life starts to suffer significantly.
Are these numbers and examples making any sense?
Do you have an idea about how many watt your appliances use, when turned on?
How about if we go through you previous random list, and I will just guess typical numbers that each appliance is using. Okay?
- desktop computer .:. will use anywhere from 30W to 150W to run. Gaming computers can use much more, typically 200W to 500W. An actual test with a kill-a-watt style tester makes sense, as it is makes quite a bit of difference wheter the actual number is closer to 30W or 150W when the computer is running.
- 24" smart tv for monitor and watching TV .:. is typicall 25W-35W
- regular blow-dryer .:. Where I live a blow dryer typically uses 1600 to 2200W, but I live where the house power is 230V, So a US blow-dryer might use less typoically max 15A at 110V = max 1650W
- 1 serving smoothie maker .:. is typically 100W to 300W to run. I have a ½ gallon blender that I use for my smoothies at home, it says 1400W. I have a small travel blender, it says 300W to run.
- a little washer .:. these are likely to be at 100W-150W to run.
So I recommend you look for labels on your appliances, that will say how many watts is being used to run each item. As this will give us a much clearer picture of the energy calculation for a boondocking experience.
For comparison a small handheld generator will typically be able to supply 1000W at full speed. A big handheld generator is typically 2000W and those big RV generators go into 5000W or even 7500W.
Just for comparison of a few handheld electronics.
A typical smartphone has a battery of about 3000mAh or 3Ah (at 3.6V = 10Wh ), and if watching videos, it can most likely still run videos for several hours on one charge.
A typical laptop will use 15-30W when showing videos.
Am I helping or confusing with listing these numbers?
So I still recommend
- doing a daily electric meter reading, just to start getting an idea of how easy it is to use a lot of electricity while living connected to the grid.
- get a kill-a-watt style watt-meter at the local hardware store so it becomes more clear how much each appliance is actually using, when powered up. As those numbers on the labels are max numbers of watt, so the actual use can be lower when monitored over an hour or a day.
Talk to you later. Okay?
And let us look at actual numbers on each of your appliances. Okay?
