Boondocking to test 50ah LiFePO4 battery

[wildwest450]

My first official Boondocking trip was supposed to be a NASCAR race at Talladega at the end of April, but it was postponed. I have a pair of good generators but was wondering how my battery would do, and what we could/couldn't run during the day. So today I spent 8 hours in the driveway on a real world test of my new tiny 40AH(usable) 13lb battery. I will list the watts of everything I ran, but I kept the fridge and 2 led lights (4bulbs) on the entire time.



Just sitting with nothing on, it uses 12.4 watts, most of that is the dumb radio that stays on constantly.
Fridge- 7w, I have a small 2 fan air circulation setup, that adds 3.5w(left it off)
Lights-3w for a two light puck led bulbs
Water pump- 25w
Slide- 50ish
Water Heater-9w
Exhaust fan over stove-10w
Awning lights led- 15w
Nose lights led-36w
Awning- started at 75w settled to 45w
Maxx Air bathroom fan- 30%-4w, 50%-11w, 100%-20.5w For actual"bathroom" use, 30% is plenty strong enough


I started with my battery full charged at 13.2v, I ran the hot water heater for 2 cycles, the first one ran for 30 minutes the 2nd, I didn't check, it was considerably shorter.
I rolled the awning in and out, ran the slide out. I did run the bathroom fan for a solid hour at 30%. I also turned a few lights off and on briefly, as you would when camping.
Towards the end of the test and I realized I was running 3 lights for most of the day.



I also upgraded my converter to a Progressive Dynamics 4655 that does lithium battery charging. It was a direct and easy replacement for the WFCO 8955.


Final results- If the battery monitor is accurate, I used 15.8ah of battery in 8 hours. I checked the battery with the disconnect off with my multimeter and it read 13.05v
It did way better than I thought it would, if the numbers are right you could go almost a full day on 80% discharge (bms cutoff) from a battery the size of riding lawnmower battery. Technology rules.


A few minutes in




At 8 hours

[CSCLARK]

Originally Posted by wildwest450

My first official Boondocking trip was supposed to be a NASCAR race at Talladega at the end of April, but it was postponed. I have a pair of good generators but was wondering how my battery would do, and what we could/couldn't run during the day. So today I spent 8 hours in the driveway on a real world test of my new tiny 40AH(usable) 13lb battery. I will list the watts of everything I ran, but I kept the fridge and 2 led lights (4bulbs) on the entire time.



Just sitting with nothing on, it uses 12.4 watts, most of that is the dumb radio that stays on constantly.
Fridge- 7w, I have a small 2 fan air circulation setup, that adds 3.5w(left it off)
Lights-3w for a two light puck led bulbs
Water pump- 25w
Slide- 50ish
Water Heater-9w
Exhaust fan over stove-10w
Awning lights led- 15w
Nose lights led-36w
Awning- started at 75w settled to 45w
Maxx Air bathroom fan- 30%-4w, 50%-11w, 100%-20.5w For actual"bathroom" use, 30% is plenty strong enough


I started with my battery full charged at 13.2v, I ran the hot water heater for 2 cycles, the first one ran for 30 minutes the 2nd, I didn't check, it was considerably shorter.
I rolled the awning in and out, ran the slide out. I did run the bathroom fan for a solid hour at 30%. I also turned a few lights off and on briefly, as you would when camping.
Towards the end of the test and I realized I was running 3 lights for most of the day.



I also upgraded my converter to a Progressive Dynamics 4655 that does lithium battery charging. It was a direct and easy replacement for the WFCO 8955.


Final results- If the battery monitor is accurate, I used 15.8ah of battery in 8 hours. I checked the battery with the disconnect off with my multimeter and it read 13.05v
It did way better than I thought it would, if the numbers are right you could go almost a full day on 80% discharge (bms cutoff) from a battery the size of riding lawnmower battery. Technology rules.


A few minutes in




At 8 hours

Awesome, congrats. Buy 1 more and you will be totally amazed at the capabilities.

[wildwest450]

Originally Posted by CSCLARK

Awesome, congrats. Buy 1 more and you will be totally amazed at the capabilities.

This was more about seeing what just one battery would give me and figuring out watt hours used, maybe a small solar panel in the future. We don't do near enough boondocking to merit another battery just yet