loriscribe Report post Posted March 12, 2016 At various rallies over the past few years, I've heard experts in their fields make contradictory statements about the ability and nonability of generators to charge house batteries in a motor home. Discussions with RVers haven't resolved the veracity of either side of that subject. Guidance, please, along with explanations. Thanks, Lori Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted March 12, 2016 Lori, Your converter, charger or inverter/charger doesn't care if it gets 120 VAC from shore power or generator-- it will charge the same from either/both. ALL coaches charge the house bank from the converter, charger or inverter/charger. SOME coaches also charge the chassis battery bank from the converter, charger or inverter/charge. NOT all. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
loriscribe Report post Posted March 12, 2016 Many thanks, Brett -- once again -- for your expertise and clarity. Lori Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbutler Report post Posted March 13, 2016 Here is our routine for generator use and battery charging during a typical day on the road, not saying the night at a campground. After a day on the road we'll settle in for the night. If we're at Walmart, rest area or other parking area, not a campground, we'll start the generator, take care of dinner, showers, watch some TV, catch up with internet and computer details and by then the house batteries are at full charge. We shut down the generator for the night. If it's real cold, the furnace may drain the batteries to the point where the auto-start on the generator will turn it back on during the night but most nights that doesn't happen. In the morning we turn on the generator, make coffee, cook breakfast and check weather and news on TV and we're on our way with the generator running. When the batteries are fully charged, the auto-start function will shut the generator down and we won't use the generator until the next night. If you don't have auto-start with your generator, you just have to monitor the battery charge on your own. It is good to charge the batteries to full before shutting down the generator and also good to make sure you don't discharge the batteries below a certain level. The generator auto-start function takes care of watching that for us, just handy. It can also be done manually. As Brett mentioned, it doesn't make any difference to the charging device whether the input is 120V AC from the shore power or from the generator, the output to the batteries is exactly the same. There is a difference in cost. After we had run our 7.5 KW generator for 1000+ hours I did a cost analysis including estimated fuel used, maintenance and repair costs and running the generator costs us about $2.50 per hour. Running the generator for eight hours costs about $20. It makes a $30 charge for a night in a campground look much more practical. Eight hours is longer than we normally run the generator in a 24 hour period. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
loriscribe Report post Posted March 13, 2016 Ooops. I hit some wrong buttons. Brett and Tom, you BOTH helped me solve my dilemma. Thanks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
