Battery life running fans for hot air heating
We're hoping to go camping this winter without electric hook up for the first time. I'd like to get an idea of how long I can expect my Lesuire battery will last running the fans for our hot air heating if the heat is supplied by gas. Could I expect a couple of nights or will I be lucky for a night?
We won't be using the battery for much tv or light use, we're hoping to stay in a pub for an evening then back to the van for bed.
Thanks for any advice in advance.
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Hi Easy T, we don't have a gas fire, just blown air that can be run on gas or electric.....but needs electric for the fans. I'll just have the heating on when we come back in so say 10pm until 10am when we set off home.....unless the boss sees this post in which case the heating will be on full from leaving our drive until returning home 😂😂
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Normally when the blown air heating is on in our caravan be it with Gas or electric , the blower fan is constantly running , the heating control unit determines what speed it runs .
It may slow when the inside temperature rises but never stops , so if the heating is off our fan is off we have no way of switching it on/off manually (the fan) .
Therefore I would guess the battey would last a reasonably time over a 2 to 3 day period .....but that's purely dependant on its charge /condition .
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As we don't know how big or how old your battery is then no-one can really answer this. Can you not run your heating at home and see how many hours it lasts? That will be your best way to find out.
Mine has lasted 5 or 6 hours without the battery going flat but I do have a newish battery.
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do you have a solar panel on the roof? if so, this will offset some/most of the power loss through fan use...
as above, i dont think youll have a problem.
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Thanks for the replies and advice.
Our battery is just over a year old and we have a solar panel. The battery is 100Ah, 700 amp whatever that means in power. We were only planning to go for a night, I work full time so can only grab the odd night here and there. We've always stayed on a site with hook up before in the winter requiring the heating on. This year we fancy trying to stay in CL's or country pubs that allow you to camp overnight in their car parks. As many of these don't have hook up we'll have to self sufficient for our heating. My life wouldn't be worth living if I took my beloved away for a night and the heating packed up in the middle of it!
At least you all seem to think we should be OK for the night so we'll give it a go. If the heating does fail I have this thread to refer to........not that I'm scared or anything 😂😂
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Worst case, say the fan takes 1 amp, you should comfortably get 10 hours without noticing much discharge if your battery is in good condition and provided your other loads are small
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Interesting reading - am trying to find out how thirsty the TV is. Just done 3 nights in a field. So gas for the blown air heating and had TV on about 7 hours in total and then a further 3 - 4 on as a 'radio'. We have 100w solar panel and 2 x 110amp lesuire batteries but lost all power on waking this morning. I think tv is thirsty, other half disagrees! An thoughts?
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I believe some TVs take a lot of power (I have heard 2 - 3 Amps mentioned on this forum) but you should be able to find out. Does it have a power rating or do you have the instructions? If you post the make somebody may know.
Of course, if the heating is ticking over all day or night that wouldn’t help because the fan is usually on all the time whilst the heating furnace cuts in and out.
There are others with more practical knowledge of going off grid who may be able to help but I would mention that when a battery says 100 ampere hours unfortunately it doesn’t mean you can get 1 amp for 100 hours, or 2 amps for 50 hours etc. The capacity is under very specific conditions, when new, fully charged, and you dont want to go below about 25% capacity..
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Thank you Hitchglitch - have done a bit of research on the Tv and will be more frugal in future (fine with me!) and ensure non LEDs are also not left on.
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