More battery power, please

3rd time this summer could not start generator in the morning.  Wife plays tv and DVDs for several hours in evening and on a cold night the furnace uses the remaining battery power.
Has anyone done a larger battery bank?  Think I need 4 six volts but can they be separated or need to find a new location for battery bank?
Hear should be close to the inverter, is that behind drivers seat on wing wall?
Another option may be to just add a cheaper starter battery for generator, anyone add a 2nd battery underhood or in another location?  Perhaps could be wired in parallel with existing 12 volt battery.
Appreciate your experience or ideas.

3rd time this summer could not start generator in the morning.  Wife plays tv and DVDs for several hours in evening and on a cold night the furnace uses the remaining battery power.

Hi Randall & Chris,

Boy I can sure relate to that.  We've been there and done a version of that for many years.  The changes I made recently in our 2007 2350 to help was to replace our two 12V batteries to two 6V batteries HERE, convert our lighting from florescent to LED HERE, a means to monitor the health of the batteries better HERE, and for those long late night movie nights, we watch TV from a much smaller 19" with integrated DVD player HERE.  In our 2007 2350, the little TV is mounted against the shirt closet over the bed.  TVs today are so much easier on batteries than the two older ones we have.  Many TVs in the small sizes actually run off 12V to begin with, getting their power from a power supply much like a lap top computer.  When shopping for a TV for your RV, make sure it runs off a 10V to 16V power supply.  Investigate them via the store displays.  When installing the TV, wire it direct to 12V.

I realize you have a 2015 model year and so some of what I changed is already applied into your new model.  What helps our batteries a lot is to keep the inverter turned "OFF" as much as possible, so having a 12V TV with integrated DVD player would offer a "HUGE" savings in energy by working direct off the batteries.  One of my next projects is to find a 12V TV with integrated DVD or Bluray.  I wonder if they exist.  It seems CDs & DVD are becoming a thing of the past with all this Pandora and Fandango stuff.

As to the effectiveness of all the changes I made, it is noticeably improved, but the jury is out as to how much better.  I still try hard to charge the batteries just before a planned "Big Drain" event.  If there is not enough juice to start the generator which happened once, extra long jumper cables to the chassis battery is a viable means to get it started.

Oh, I did want to also mention that I agree that the furnace blower is a real power hog.  I know you have a 2400 so you can't easily close off your bedroom.  But for others reading, close up your bedroom with the draw curtain HERE to contain the heat where you and the thermostat are to reduce the cycling of the furnace.

rd time this summer could not start generator in the morning. 

Of course you can always start the Ford engine which charges all batteries and when you have enough voltage your generator will start.

On the other hand you are killing the life of your coach batteries, You should try to never go below 50% charge or 12.1 volts.


Also realize that the converter that charges your house batteries NEVER can get them to 100% charge because it does not charge them at a high enough voltage.
The best way to keep you batteries fully charged is to put in a solar charging system.

Keelhauler,  I was under the impression batteries like the Optima  deep cycle could be taken down lower repeatedly.  No idea where I got this idea but you seem to be in the know. What's your thought?

I have seen that chart many times.  I understand that a complete battery drain, regardless of it's technology (wet acid, gel, AGM, other) will permanently degrade it by some amount, making it's energy bucket permanently smaller.  The name of the game is to never let the batteries go below 12.1V (or 50%) when they are at rest.  Pending the demand when they are in-use, the voltage can immediately drop into the 11's.  Turn off the hungry electrical items that are eating energy, and the resting voltage goes back up.  What I refer to as "resting voltage" is the voltage of the batteries when nothing is using them.

I installed a volt meter HERE to offer an additional means of monitoring, in an "IN MY FACE" location.  As I previously mentioned, when the batteries are getting used, the voltage can drop below the safe zone of ~12.1V, but when everything is turned off, a fully charged battery will immediately rise back to ~12.7V.  It's not the best method to monitor the batteries, but between the Tripp-Lite monitor, the main PC monitor, and the added volt meter, I hope to take better care of our batteries.

A simple alternative to my volt meter is a 12V plug-in one like THIS.  Unfortunately there are no 12V outlets in the house of a PC that are in plain view.

The battery indicators on our 2007 2350 Tripp-Lite control panel is a 3 colored LED light as follows.  For me, it's not enough information to work with.
GREEN - fully charged
GREEN/YELLOW - partially drained
YELLOW - needing a charge now
YELLOW/RED - batteries are permanently degrading, charge immediately
RED - batteries are dead

Like with the Tripp-Lite battery meter, the battery monitor on our main control panel HERE isn't enough for me.  It doesn't help that I have to push the button to read the meter.  Continuous metering is a constant reminder to pay attention.  The one I installed and that plug-in one uses so very little energy.

I was under the impression batteries like the Optima  deep cycle could be taken down lower repeatedly.  No idea where I got this idea but you seem to be in the know. What's your thought?

From Optima-

Under normal starting conditions, an OPTIMA battery should never experience at rest voltages below 12. Most 12-volt chargers and alternators have no problem recharging an OPTIMA if it has an at rest voltage of 10.5 or greater.

The magic threshold – 10.5 volts. The charging scenario for a deeply discharged AGM battery, one that's dipped below 10.5 volts, may be slightly different. The OPTIMA Digital 1200 can recover batteries that have been discharged as low as 1.25 volts. For other charger tips for recovering a deeply discharged AGM battery can be found in OPTIMA's tech tip, How to Resuscitate a Deeply Discharged AGM Battery.

Lots of good battery info and feeling better may not have totally ruined ours since don't think rest voltage was below 11v, but how do you correlate rest voltage to what's showing on the meter while playing a dvd knowing DW won't appreciate turning everything off to check.

Lots of good battery info and feeling better may not have totally ruined ours since don't think rest voltage was below 11v, but how do you correlate rest voltage to what's showing on the meter while playing a dvd knowing DW won't appreciate turning everything off to check.

Randall & Chris,

I added this to my previous post to help clarify.

What I refer to as "resting voltage" is the voltage of the batteries when nothing is using them.  That "resting voltage" or "idle voltage" should not get below 12.1V.

When your inverter is on with the TV, lights and all the rest, the "working voltage" will be less than the "resting voltage".  Unfortunately a volt meter does not tell you what's really going on until after you turn everything off.  There are much better, more complex systems that do, but I am hoping to learn enough with a simple volt meter in constant view.  I hope it will come down to "feeling out" the reading after a vacation or two.  I have yet to go on a multi-week trip with the new volt meter installed so I am not sure how well I'll be able to determine when the batteries need charging under "working voltage" conditions.  I may be dependent on readings after turning everything off.  I will find out soon enough.

Ron

keelhauler, thank you,,