Solar power questions (some are silly!) (1 Viewer)

DanielFord

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We have finally got around to booking the van in with VanBitz to have tonnes of things fitted, amongst these are solar on the roof and a 1800w inverter.
My first question, for all those who have panels and inverters, we will really only use the 220v to power our coffee machine (1400w) possibly the microwave every now and then (it's a 650w, but no idea what it's power consumption is) and the wife will want to use the hair dryer. We will have 2 x 110a leisure batteries, and 150w on the roof. How long is that going to provide power for when off grid? I know that is very much a how long is a piece of string type question.
The second question, and this is possibly the silly one, how is the fridge going to know to go over to gas rather than use the 220 supplied by the inverter? Do I have to manually select gas?
 
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One quick answer, your fridge won't run off the inverter/leisure battery.
 

hilldweller

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Don't recall ever seeing coffee machine on an inverter before but is probably the best way to destroy your batteries.

1400W at 12V = 120A or so for quite a long time, depending on machine type of course. Gas is for Heating !

A 650W microwave takes about 650W. So a fair old load depanding on what you are cooking. Gar is for cooking.

Hair dryer, well the only thing more damaging that a hair dryer is the divorce lawyer.

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Techno

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I have 500ah of batteries that only feed my inverter and nothing else. 300watt of solar keep them topped up during the good months.
 

Tweedie

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Hi Daniel if your booked in with VanBitz I would suggest you give them a call to discuss exactly what you want, and what to expect from what your having fitted. Don't be worried about asking them silly questions, they are very good at putting you at ease and sorting out the best solution for you, they don't bite :LOL:. I can vouch for that am not at all technical and had to phone them with a very basic query, Ash soon put me on the right track. Am sure you will be very pleased with their quality of work.
 
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DanielFord

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Don't recall ever seeing coffee machine on an inverter before but is probably the best way to destroy your batteries.
It's one of those pod machines, so it is only powered up for about a minute. We are coffee snob! :D

Hair dryer, well the only thing more damaging that a hair dryer is the divorce lawyer.
(y)

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DanielFord

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Hi Daniel if your booked in with VanBitz I would suggest you give them a call to discuss exactly what you want, and what to expect from what your having fitted. Don't be worried about asking them silly questions, they are very good at putting you at ease and sorting out the best solution for you, they don't bite :LOL:. I can vouch for that am not at all technical and had to phone them with a very basic query, Ash soon put me on the right track. Am sure you will be very pleased with their quality of work.
I'll run all these questions by him, but I was also looking for experiences from everyone who has such a system as well. :D
 

JeanLuc

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As Brian says, the more heating you can do with gas, the better. The coffee machine will take almost 120 amps and in good sunlight (i.e. clear skies in high summer) you might get 8-10 amps from the panel in the middle of the day - assume a generous average of 8. So, your coffee machine alone will consume electricity 15 times faster than the panel can restore it. That means that if the coffee machine is on for 15 minutes or so, you will need about 4 hours of sunshine to replace the current used.
A stove-top Bialetti Moka Express is a less power-hungry option!

p.s. just seen your later post - I did not realise a pod machine needed to be switched on for such a short time. My Gaggia traditional machine needs 10 minutes to get the brewing head good and hot (at home of course).
 

Doctor Dave

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You may well find that your inverter won't run the microwave as its start up current could be well over 1400 watts - I assume the inverter is PSW?

Dave

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hilldweller

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It's one of those pod machines, so it is only powered up for about a minute. We are coffee snob! :D
(y)

That sounds doable. A proper cappuccino machine would be a different matter.

Basically the energy stored in gas is huge, in a lead acid battery quite small.
 

Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
I have 3 x 110 batteries, 200watts of solar, 1800w pure sine wave ( you will need this for coffee maker ) and a B2B charger. I can go for weeks/months without EHU, but do use EHU when it's in the price of a site.
I draw on average per day 25amps and 95% of my time is off EHU. In Spain on a good day I can have fully charged batteries by 14:00hrs using a good MPPT solar controller. In France and UK I cannot replace the amps taken out via solar because of the lack of full sun. This is were the B2B comes into use. I can have fully charged batteries after 30/40 minutes of engine running. Now the coffee maker will draw loads of amps from your batteries and the hair dryer will be the same. I can use a coffee maker, but chose to use a simple cafetiere, which works for us.
You are going to the best man to advise and I'm sure Eddie will sort out your requirements.
 

Techno

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it's a 650w, but no idea what it's power consumption is
This will be on the specification plate near the cable entry on the back. A 650watt will probably draw about 950 tops.
From memory my 850watt panasonic drew 1100

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Robert Clark

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It's one of those pod machines, so it is only powered up for about a minute. We are coffee snob! :D


(y)
We have a similar set up to you fitted by @Vanbitz

We have a 2kw Victron inverter/charger which powers on a daily basis;
Nespresso machine
1200w hair dryer

We also have a mini washing machine and a Dyson vac which we use less frequently

We have 4 80W Gell Batteries, 2 x 100w solar panels, and a B2B charger

We've just come back from a winter trip to Spain
When not travelling (using the B2B charger) we can go for about 2-3 days using the hair dryer and Nespresso
Its useful to go onto hook up and fully charge the batteries when you have the chance
We're also now turning off the inverter when not in use
We also charge all our phones and ipad from the 12V circuit when driving

Hope this helps?
 

hilldweller

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Basically the energy stored in gas is huge, in a lead acid battery quite small.

Just looked up the numbers.

1kg of Butane contains 50,000,000Ws = 50E6 / 3600 = 1400Wh of energy.
100Ah x 12v = 1200Wh.

But a tank of gas is 20Kg so over 40 times as much energy on tap.

I rest my case.
 
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Could you put hot(ish) water in the coffee machine it would use quite a bit less power to heat the water up
 

funflair

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If you can get more solar up there I would, we have 320 watts and sometimes we still get next to nothing out of it, if you have plenty of spare solar a Votronic solar regulator will run the fridge on 12volts with it, regarding the fridge if it's on "auto" it will try to run off 240 volts when the inverter is on so you will need to switch it manually to gas if you don't want it to, but for the few minutes the coffee machine will be on it would not hurt.

We run all the bits of kit that you want to and it all works fine, as others have said inverter needs to be pure sine for the coffee machine, some people say use gas but the sunshine is free so why not use that and it's so much easier to warm milk in a mug in the microwave than mess about with a pan and then have it to clean, rice in a bag only takes a minute job done.

Martin
 

funflair

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We have been in France and Spain for two weeks now with not the best of sun and we have made 400ah from 320 watts of solar feeding 4x80 ah gel batteries, we have run this set up but with only 2x80 ah gel batteries for nearly 4 years and the batteries were a few possibly 6 years old when we got the van, so if the inverter kills your batteries buy better ones next time, EXIDE gel's.

Martin

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Lenny HB

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This will be on the specification plate near the cable entry on the back. A 650watt will probably draw about 950 tops.
From memory my 850watt panasonic drew 1100
Panasonic microwaves use inverter technology and only draw about 30% more that their rated output at start up, cheap microwaves usually draw double their rated output at start up.
 

pappajohn

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just seen your later post - I did not realise a pod machine needed to be switched on for such a short time
Much less time than an electric kettle....even a 3kw kettle.
I just timed my very cheap Aldi machine.
ON to READY.....42.62 seconds including my reaction time on the timer button
 
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DanielFord

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Much less time than an electric kettle....even a 3kw kettle.
I just timed my very cheap Aldi machine.
ON to READY.....42.62 seconds including my reaction time on the timer button
Comparable to ours, it's a Dolce Gusto, from experience I know it turns on the heater element when you turn it on. About 30secs until green light, push the make coffee button, another 30 secs later a perfect cup of coffee is served :D
 

pappajohn

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Comparable to ours, it's a Dolce Gusto, from experience I know it turns on the heater element when you turn it on. About 30secs until green light, push the make coffee button, another 30 secs later a perfect cup of coffee is served :D
Mine will use more from time to time as it has a steam wand/milk frother, but even so a minute and a half is easily do-able

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deleted-member02

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Solar's not going to provide much during the winter months and cold batteries don't work as well either.
I'd be inclined to have more batteries and/or a b2b charger fitted too.
Since you're visiting Vanbitz anyway, just as well get it done in one hit....
 
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Ivory55

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How much time could a Nicky Clarke 2000 watt hair dryer run on a 2000 watt pure sine inverter with 2x110 amp batteries please. Cheers
 

pappajohn

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How much time could a Nicky Clarke 2000 watt hair dryer run on a 2000 watt pure sine inverter with 2x110 amp batteries please. Cheers
Theoretically, with first class batteries and average voltage conversion losses......30 to 35 minutes

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funflair

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You have 1320 watts in your batteries to 50% DOD so that would suggest about 39 minutes, so let's say 30 as you would not get the full capacity at the high load.

Not recommended though.

Martin
 

Don Quixote

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Not long enough, but a little common sense helps..........
Theoretically, with first class batteries........ I would not draw more than 10/15 minutes first class batteries will become second class very quickly and/or no class if you keep doing it. Remember what you take out you must replace so the batteries are/need to be fully charged NOT just topped up or they will die.
 
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Robert Clark

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Mrs C uses a travel hair dryer - only 1200w
Every little counts !

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