Choosing the right battery for your RV, Acoucou Battery Buying Guide

how to choose suitable batteries for your RV

The two most important and complex systems of an RV are undoubtedly the water and electricity systems. For the sake of saving money, many RV owners choose to install energy storage systems in their RVs.

Lead-acid batteries and lithium iron phosphate batteries are the most popular in RV energy storage systems.

Lead-acid batteries: cheap, small storage capacity, large weight and volume, inability to discharge deeply, few cycles and shorter lifespan.

Lithium iron phosphate batteries: expensive, large storage capacity, light weight, small size, deep discharge, more cycles and longer lifespan.

There are three power charging systems on the RV: external mains power, generator and solar power generation.

External power supply

Advantage: no noise, generally unlimited power consumption.

Disadvantage: difficult to find a place to connect electricity when going out.

Generator

Advantage: almost no limit to the use of electricity at any time if oil is sufficient.

Disadvantage: noisy.

Solar power

Advantage: quiet and generate electricity with the sun.

Disadvantage: low power generation efficiency.

Energy consumption estimation

If air conditioning is not included, 400Ah is usually sufficient; if air conditioning is included, it requires over 400Ah, usually 600Ah to 800Ah.

Generally, refrigeration power consumption of air conditioners is about 800W, heating power is about 2500W; refrigerator is about 50W; TV is about 200W; water heater power consumption is about 1000W; and induction cooker is about 800W. As for lighting and electronic devices, their power consumption is relatively small. There are relatively few extreme cases where these appliances are used simultaneously, let's take using air conditioning for refrigeration in summer as an example.

If there is no external power supply or no generator, we can only rely on battery storage to supply energy.  If we drive for 8 hours a night and calculate based on 800W power, we will consume 6.4kW of electricity per night. Acoucou 12V 100Ah battery is 1.2kW, 12V 300Ah battery is 3.6kW.

Solar installation

As a beginner, we can build a simple solar system. Acoucou batteries can be used for off-grid system to offer sufficient power when encountering emergencies.

Too many or heavy batteries will increase the weight of the vehicle, resulting in excessive fuel consumption. Therefore, for high-power appliances and long travel in RV, Acoucou LiFePO4 batteries are more suitable as backup power sources, which can be applied for short travel power supply, be used with other power sources to save costs or respond to emergencies.