House batteries

How many house batteries, and what sort of amps do most people have in there motor homes ?
I’m just about to put 2 x 130 amp hours in our Gloucester and wondered if it was overkill.
Cheers
Ian

I would start by working out what your typical usage/requirements are.
A single battery might be more than enough for some whereas someone else may struggle with 2. This is before considering what a decent solar setup would also provide.

If it’s any help we have one 100amp and one 110amp leisure batteries as fitted when we bought the Rienza. We don’t have much tech apart from a small TV and the need to charge phones, kindle and i pad. 
The solar panel is a 130 amp panel and we seem to have enough power for what we need. I will be changing both leisure batteries to the same amperage and same age this year as a matter of making things match. The mis match can’t be as efficient as it could be.

Hi
    Unless your Gloucester is different to UK Spec it should already have two habitation (House) batteries one under the rear bed and one under the front passenger seat,have your a solar panel to keep them charged up,we found that set up quite adequate.
Alan

Dbvwt wrote:I would start by working out what your typical usage/requirements are.
A single battery might be more than enough for some whereas someone else may struggle with 2. This is before considering what a decent solar setup would also provide.

If you're putting in two large batteries then I assume you'll be operating away from an EHU (otherwise, what's the point?)...
So, as Dave says, this is a balancing act between understanding your usage, your ability to replace this amount (solar input) and somewhere to store it (batteries) should weather change and solar charge fall.
Watching TV, using lights, running a water pump and Truma heating fan are all 'normal' everyday off grid functions and should cause a decent battery (or two) much of a problem.
Throw in some other more serious elements like charging a couple of ebike batteries or using a hairdrier from an inverter and your demand increases and changes the 'power' equation.
Only you can determine how you'll use the van and under what circumstances.
Good luck.

molly, there have been many forum comments that lithium batteries arent necessarily just 'drop in' replacements in vans greared around slower charging lead acid batteries...
you mention 'faster charging' but this will only happen if you update the equipment that can do this...
this means (perhaps) a battery-to-battery, moving charge from the (alternator powered) cab battery to the lithium....faster than the usual split charge systems.
it also means checking any solar controllers and your mains charger, both have a lithium charging profile.
yes, you will save weight and get the same usable power from half the rated AH but ensure the fitted end product is an integrated 'system'...talk to someone like RoadPro or a company specializing in lithium and its charging requirements.
good luck.

gemdeco wrote:Hi
    Unless your Gloucester is different to UK Spec it should already have two habitation (House) batteries one under the rear bed and one under the front passenger seat,have your a solar panel to keep them charged up,we found that set up quite adequate.
Alan

Hi Alan,
It’s the same set up, but the battery under the seat is a Mercedes battery which is not deep cycle, just a vehicle battery as far as I’m aware. I have a 100 watt solar panel on the roof and 2 x deep cycle batteries under the bed.
So far so good, but winter is ever closer over here, so I’ll find out soon if it’s sufficient.

Thank you to everybody that responded to my question, much appreciated
Cheers 
Ian