Re: [A/S] Furnace and Battery

[Jim Dunmyer <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Barbara,
 There is some charging taking place when you're running down the road,
but not as much as you might think. The same goes for a standard
converter, they do charge the battery, but usually quite slowly. 

A good, well-charged battery will run your furnace at least overnight,
probably 24 hours or so. However, when it is also called upon to operate
several lights, the pump, and maybe a small TV, the hours of operation
are diminshed dramatically.

One of the keys is "well-charged battery". When you think your battery
is fully charged, let it sit, disconnected from both loads and charging
source for 12 hours, then measure the voltage at the terminals with a
good, accurage Digital VoltMeter (DVM). It should be 12.6 volts.

A half-charged battery measures 12.2 volts after resting for a few
hours, so you can see that an ACCURATE DVM is important.

Anyone planning on doing much boondocking should have a good converter
like the InteliPower to treat their battery(s) well. Plus, an eMeter or
equivilant device so you can tell what's going on with your electrical
system. Operating w/o such a meter is like driving your tow vehicle w/o
a fuel guage: yes, it can be done, but it often leads to unexpected
stoppages along the road. :-)

                                   <<Jim>>