Cheap setup to power one item.

[excavator]

Hello. I'm looking for a very basic setup to power a small Chinese diesel RV/marine heater for a room in my house when the power goes out. The heater is 12v 8kw and I believe they pull about 12 amps on startup with the glow plug for about 5 min. After warm up, it uses about 1 amp to power the blower fan.

I found a 200W, 100A starter kit on ebay for 46 bucks. I have 2 1000CCA car batteries that are good enough. So the question is, how long would the heater run off the two...meh batteries and would the cheap ebay kit be enough to charge it up during the day? Not sure if I can post links here, all I searched for was "200W Solar Panel Kit" and it was like the 4th one down with 65 sold.

I'm looking forward to not freezing my butt off when the power goes out.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[snoobler]

Welcome to the forum.

1000CCA tells you nothing about the capacity of the batteries. It tells you how much current it can deliver at 0°F for 30 seconds and stay above 7.2V. High CCA batteries generally don't cycle well and have very short lives when deep cycled even just to 50%.

The "200W, 100A" numbers are incongruent.

Links to product details help in answering questions.

How long do you want to run the heater?

 

[Hedges]

See if the batteries have a "reserve" rating, something like 25A 60 minutes which would mean 25 amp-hours. In that case it could supply 1A to the blower for 25 hours. Two batteries, twice as long.

As Snoobler says, the batteries aren't expected to survive that very many times. The fewer amp-hours you draw from them the better. Other batteries meant for deep cycling but at higher price will last longer.

But it sounds like you could get 2 days of heat a few times.

Solar panels and sunshine, then it will last a lot longer. Your two batteries for 50 hours operation (assuming 60 minutes reserve capacity at 25A) would only drain 25% each night.
You'll need to recharge 24A x 12V = 300W or so every day. 200W of PV panels should do that even in winter, but not when overcast. In that case you might use your car to recharge the battery.

 

[excavator]

Thanks for the quick responses! I'll have to check out the batteries tomorrow. Here is the link to the solar.

200W Solar Panel Kit 10A-100A 12V battery Charger with Controller Caravan Boat | eBay

First, face the sun with a solar panel, and a red light on the back indicates that the current output is normal. You can also put it on the workbench in front of the dashboard. 1x Solar Panel. With advanced polyethylene coating technology, the battery surface is coated with dark blue reflective...

www.ebay.com

 

[excavator]

Welcome to the forum.

1000CCA tells you nothing about the capacity of the batteries. It tells you how much current it can deliver at 0°F for 30 seconds and stay above 7.2V. High CCA batteries generally don't cycle well and have very short lives when deep cycled even just to 50%.

The "200W, 100A" numbers are incongruent.

Links to product details help in answering questions.

How long do you want to run the heater?

Was planing to run it 10 - 12 hours at night. I'm at work during the day, and the power doesn't go out for that long. It's just tough when it goes out from 6pm to 6 am.

 

[snoobler]

Thanks for the quick responses! I'll have to check out the batteries tomorrow. Here is the link to the solar.

200W Solar Panel Kit 10A-100A 12V battery Charger with Controller Caravan Boat | eBay

First, face the sun with a solar panel, and a red light on the back indicates that the current output is normal. You can also put it on the workbench in front of the dashboard. 1x Solar Panel. With advanced polyethylene coating technology, the battery surface is coated with dark blue reflective...

www.ebay.com

That kit is a steaming pile of misleading yak shit. It's about 1/4th the cost of what it should be. When you look at the details of the listing, that's a 25W solar panel.

 

[Bud Martin]

I am so glad you ask about that pile of crap of that so called 200W Solar panel kit. EBAY needs ban all these full of crap sellers.

 

[excavator]

That kit is a steaming pile of misleading yak shit. It's about 1/4th the cost of what it should be. When you look at the details of the listing, that's a 25W solar panel.

Thank you for saving me from it. Do you have a suggestion for a budget kit that would fit my small needs?

Thanks

 

[Hedges]

Thank you for saving me from it. Do you have a suggestion for a budget kit that would fit my small needs?

Thanks

SanTan Solar T Series 250W Solar Panel Kit (1 Panel) - SanTan Solar Store

Get your 1 250W solar panel kit today! Comes with solar panel, charge controller, PV wire, battery wire, z brackets, and circut breakers. Only $165!

store.santansolar.com

But the trouble is shipping cost (freight for a pallet, due to size of PV panel). Unless that vendor is local for you, look for similar deal for a panel on craigslist.
You could buy balance of system from SanTan. He has batteries too.

Batteries | SanTan Solar

store.santansolar.com

 

[pollenface]

Ebay is full of misleading sellers but usually they don't know what they're selling.

I'm sure a 135ah agm, 15a mppt and 250w solar panel would work fine