One of my main characters in my story set in 1998 (USA, starting in Idaho and later heading to New Jersey) is a supernatural girl whose "abilities" make it impossible for people to remember her. Anyone she interacts with will completely forget about her after 15 minutes at the most, and that's when her powers are on their lowest "setting". At max power she enters a floating, completely incorporeal ghostly form that nobody can remember long enough to even acknowledge in the first place. As far as she can tell, she feeds off of leeching human memory, and thus for her "meals" she goes in public to do something weird and attention-grabbing before running off to be promptly forgotten. She spends most of the rest of her lonely days trying to amuse herself by flying around with her powers, watching people live their lives, or playing video games in the stolen RV she lives out of. As for that RV, I have some questions. From what I understand, the battery that powers all of the RV's outlets and lights and such needs to be charged with special power cords, but the things I heard about them imply the charging stations are specialized equipment you typically can only find at things called RV parks. Is that true? How often would she need to go to these places, and would her inability to be remembered make it impossible for her to use one of these things without difficulties arising?
Those are known as "House Batteries". Unlike batteries used to start a car, they are deep cycle, meaning they take a long charge and then give a long output. Starter ones give a burst for a few seconds until the engine starts. House batteries usually come in pairs to store a bigger charge that lasts longer. To charge them: Driving to a location can charge the house batteries using the output of the alternator for the supply. Most RV's have an on board generator that runs off the gasoline in the main tanks. It can charge the batteries also, but most of the time is used to directly power things. The cord is simply a 30 or 50 amp cord, which has different plugs on it to prevent too small a cord from being used (and starting a fire). Hookups at parks, and owner's homes have to have a certain receptacle to match the cord, along with the proper wiring and circuit breakers to make them safe. There is nothing odd or unusual about the hookup, and there are millions of them across the country. How long the system holds a charge is hard to say. If you aren't running a reefer and A/C, they can get by for days. A heater. hot water heater, A/C and reefer suck it down quickly. Most people depend on running a genset most of the time during peak usage, and the house batteries only carry a light load such as when everyone is sleeping or away from the RV. So the short answer is: House batteries aren't any issue to keep charged, rotating between driving/ hook-up and genset usuage....(not to mention some people add solar panels to farther charge their house batteries, and yes, in 1998 those existed). In 1998 one of the dominant motorhomes was the Fleetwood Bounder. Look up specs for one of those for details.
Pretty much what RandolhB said. The charging connections aren't charging "stations" the way we think of charging stations for electric cars today. As noted, it's a standard 30-amp or 50-amp twist-lock outlet that requires a matching cord. You won't find such outlets in most houses but they are usually available at RV parks and campgrounds that cater to the RV crowd. Marinas have the same kind of outlets for connecting boats to shore power. https://www.amazon.com/rv-50-amp-power-cord/s?k=rv+50+amp+power+cord But ... unlike a Tesla charging station, you don't just pull up to the charging "station," plug in for an hour or three while you recharge, and then leave. The power outlets are provided at each camp site, so you pay for a night (or several nights) at a camp site and you get to connect to the power outlet while you're parked at that camp site. Also as RandolphB noted, the RV battery bank can be charged by the vehicle's alternator, or she could carry a small, portable generator to charge the batteries from. That 50-amp cord is more than what's required for charging the batteries -- they're only 12 volts. The 50-amp cord is to allow running all the appliances and devices in the RV when connected to outside power.
Ah, so running some things can only be done while it's plugged in? What can the battery itself power?
I would have to defer to someone who has owned a camper. I know just enough to know that I don't know a lot. My experience was in cruising sailboats. We used ice chests rather than refrigerators and a kerosene stove for cooking. The batteries basically only ran a few lights. My understanding is that most campers use propane for cooking, and many also use propane powered refrigerators. I believe air conditioning is run by 120-volt electricity. so that won't run off the batteries. There are inverters, that can take 12-volt battery power and bump it up to 120-volt for household equipment, but inverters can't power air conditioning. You could, however, use inverter power to run (or recharge) a notebook computer.
Alright, thanks. I managed to figure it out with a little more research. Unfortunately it sounds like I grossly overestimated what the RV's internal battery is capable of powering, apparently the power outlets in the RV don't work at all unless the RV is plugged in. I was hoping she'd at least be able to use it to power a TV to play video games on, but it seems like she'll need to rig something up separately.
A couple of things - RV's usually have a 30 or 50 amp power cord which isn't standard for home outlets. However, they also usually come with an adapter to use a standard 3-prong outlet. The charging just takes longer. For power outlets, it depends. Some RV's will only provide AC when plugged in. Many RV's also have inverters. These will power most outlets with 120VAC by inverting the power from the batteries. the big exceptions are (usually and most certainly in your time period) being the air conditioning, refrigerator, and when not in propane/DC mode the heating and hot water systems. There are more recent RV's equipped with high efficiency 12V air conditioners which can run off of the batteries. Also, with a large battery bank and inverter, running a refrigerator is not a problem - we did this in our motorhome when the propane one died and installed a residential fridge. Some higher end RV's will also use their primary fuel source (usually diesel) for heat and hot water.
