Despartely seeking answers.

[Brad & Shelley Dalzell]

I have questions that hope that I can be helped with.
We are getting our 19ft trailer in July and we are trying to make some decisions.
1) if we are plugged in does this charge the 6 volt batteries at the same time.
2) Does the 6 volt batteries run all of the lights, fridge and furnace and is the invertor required to do all of this.

I will be back with more questions.

[tractors1]

Dual 6V batteries are wired in series to provide 12V, which will charge when you are plugged in (or if solar equipped, the sun is shining a bit.) No inverter needed to power lights, fridge, and furnace as they all use 12V from the battery. Fridge should run on AC if plugged in, but it still needs the 12V to power the controls.

[LeonW]

Originally Posted by Brad & Shelley Dalzell

I have questions that hope that I can be helped with.
We are getting our 19ft trailer in July and we are trying to make some decisions.
1) if we are plugged in does this charge the 6 volt batteries at the same time.
2) Does the 6 volt batteries run all of the lights, fridge and furnace and is the invertor required to do all of this.

I will be back with more questions.

1) If you are plugged in, it will charge the batteries.
2) the lights and the furnace all run on DC. so the shore power is changing the batteries which in turn is powering the DC things -- basically anything runs on 12 volt. The fridge is more complicated. It requires (or at least my model requires) 12 volt power for the control board. But you can run your fridge off propane, AC (in which case the fridge is powered by the shoreline) or 12 volt (DC) in which case it is powered by the two six volt batteries. None of this requires an inverter.

Recently Wayne M and Verily pointed to a couple of web pages called the "12volt side of life". The links are here. It is a great resource for understanding how the electrical system in your trailer will work.

[P&L]

As newbies we made the mistake of running our fridge off battery power, and because we have solar, we thought that would have been enough. Our battery died. We should have run it on propane.

[KarenH]

With the three-way refer on "Auto" it will default in this order: AC (shore power), propane, DC (batteries). But as stated above, there always must be a source of DC power (batteries) to make the control panel function.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Brad & Shelley Dalzell

I have questions that hope that I can be helped with.
We are getting our 19ft trailer in July and we are trying to make some decisions.
1) if we are plugged in does this charge the 6 volt batteries at the same time.
2) Does the 6 volt batteries run all of the lights, fridge and furnace and is the invertor required to do all of this.

I will be back with more questions.

Sometimes I think that there's a little bit of confusion between "inverter" and "converter"

All Escapes come with a converter. Basically it's a battery charger when you're plugged into 110 volt power.

Escape offers inverters as an option. They convert 12 volt battery power into 110 volts for operating household type AC devices. Some folks don't use many AC devices and don't get them. Some, like me, find it handy to be able to use a microwave etc. while not connected to shorepower.

A middle alternative, between ordering one as an option or not, is to install an after market one. For inverters the choice is yours.

Ron

[MyronL]

Another good example: you brought along that small home kitchen television not meant for 12 volt power. When camped without paying for a shore power connection all your 12 volt stuff, lights, etc., are working fine off the batteries but, not that TV. It needs 110. Having the inverter to plug into makes the TV work off your batteries.

[KLRchickie]

Originally Posted by KarenH

With the three-way refer on "Auto" it will default in this order: AC (shore power), propane, DC (batteries). But as stated above, there always must be a source of DC power (batteries) to make the control panel function.

"Auto" on our fridge only does AC & propane. DC must be manually selected.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by MyronL

Another good example: you brought along that small home kitchen television not meant for 12 volt power. When camped without paying for a shore power connection all your 12 volt stuff, lights, etc., are working fine off the batteries but, not that TV. It needs 110. Having the inverter to plug into makes the TV work off your batteries.

Tell dawg to put his glasses back on and move back from the screen.

Ron

[Greg A]

We got a 12 v usb outlet added at the TV location. When off-grid I just plug a small inverter in the 12v outlet and TV works fine without hookups. No need for a trailer wide inverter for us.

[cpaharley2008]

I got a 12v outlet also, for a 12v tv.Keep it simple.

[gocamp]

The new Xantrex looks nice
https://rv-pro.com/news/xantrex-debu...-wave-inverter

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by Greg A

We got a 12 v usb outlet added at the TV location. When off-grid I just plug a small inverter in the 12v outlet and TV works fine without hookups. No need for a trailer wide inverter for us.

If you're new to all this, these small inverters are a good thing to know about. They're cheap ($30 or so) and can be used to convert low power draw 12V appliances like TVs and stereos to 120V. Be mindful that you can deplete a 12V battery pretty quickly with things like toasters and coffee pots.

[skyfree]

Also, inverters use a lot more energy than 12v appliances do, so you will get way less TV watching time out of a 110v TV plugged into an inverter than you will out of a 12v TV running right off of your battery. There are lots of 12v TV's out there. A lot of TV's these days actually run off of 12v but have a 110v to 12v transformer, so you are double-converting your voltages if you are plugging into an inverter.

My friend is an electrical engineer and one time he saw that I had a 110v USB outlet plugged into our inverter and he educated me. He gave me some 12V USB outlets next time I saw him.

[Zardoz]

Originally Posted by skyfree

Also, inverters use a lot more energy than 12v appliances do, so you will get way less TV watching time out of a 110v TV plugged into an inverter than you will out of a 12v TV running right off of your battery. There are lots of 12v TV's out there. A lot of TV's these days actually run off of 12v but have a 110v to 12v transformer, so you are double-converting your voltages if you are plugging into an inverter.

My friend is an electrical engineer and one time he saw that I had a 110v USB outlet plugged into our inverter and he educated me. He gave me some 12V USB outlets next time I saw him.

Aren't most TVs 12V LED these days?