BCM Community

I have an intelli power 45 amp "smart charger" left over from my first bus that I never even used...so what's the general consensus on needed dc amperage?? We are going 100% LED in our lighting so the only other thing that jumps out is the water pump and the 10 odd and end electronic device chargers...

So generally how large a dc supply is everyone going with??

It depends on your battery bank.  If you have a small (200 AH or less) bank, that charger is fine.  It will supply any DC loads while plugged in and keep the batteries up.  If you go to a larger battery bank, then you need to resize the charger if you want to get the bank cycled in a reasonable period of time.  For wet cell batteries a rule of thumb is 20% of the capacity...  Some chargers can act as a pure power supply (no batteries) and some can't.  I would recommend that you do have some sort of battery bank on it, even a single marine start/deep cycle, which is what I actually use in my truck camper.

Brian

It currently has 6 batteries although 2 of them I suspect are bad and our slow charging now... So I'll start with 4 marine batteries

We have 2 6V golf cart batts. I use the same unit that you're talking about. We live full time and are plugged in all the time. I have to add maybe 1 cup of water every 6 months. The batts are 6 years old and still strong.

Don & Sheila

I should have said "up to 20%" in the earlier reply.  Less is fine if you don't mind a longer bulk charge cycle.  I've been using a 5 amp charger on my 235 AH bank for two years, it's quite happy with that.  I just manage the usage appropriately.  It is also charged by the bus alternator when the bus is running.

Brian