12v appliances

[hogger]

Hello All

Can all you knowledgible people advise on 12v appliances and whether they are worth getting i.e. kettle, air fryer etc.
I re-joined a few weeks ago and my wife and are currently living in Spain and on the search for a van suitable for off grid as much as possible. We've been to a couple of dealers here but so far nothing ticks the boxes.
I'm not that technical and haven't read up on the subect of 12v versus normal voltage appliances. If you have a good amount of solar, inverter,charger and lithium set up would it not be best to use 240v in this case or would it be better to go with all 12v stuff anyway to conserve batteries?

So far, we've not came across a van with a good set up yet. We do realise we may need to find the right van and get more stuff fitted ourselves in terms of solar/inverter etc, but assuming we do have a good set up what would be best.

Apologies for the long winded post when I could probably have written this in two sentences.... I do tend to get distracted and ramble a bit and there it seems there is so much to think about when buying a van.

Many thanks in advance

Steven

 

[autorouter]

Maybe 100W QC on the USB-A.

It says maximum 12V, maximum 6.5A, so that's a theoretical maximum of 78W. Their numbers, not mine.

Ebay, and the internet generally, are full of bogus USB charger claims, from sellers who don't know what they are selling - or worse, from ones that know exactly what they are selling, and don't care.

 

[1967bowesj]

It says maximum 12V, maximum 6.5A, so that's a theoretical maximum of 78W. Their numbers, not mine.

Ebay, and the internet generally, are full of bogus USB charger claims, from sellers who don't know what they are selling - or worse, from ones that know exactly what they are selling, and don't care.

Not just chargers, I think that can be levied against a lot of "retailers " these days.
More so when you contact these peoples support to ask a question and you shake your head at the reply!

 

[hogger]

Your second paragraph sums it up.
Lots of solar, lithium and inverter given where you are based.
Forget about finding a perfect set up straight out of the dealers, you will be better off finding the layout that's right then get what you NEED fitted as you use the van.

Many thanks and what you say makes sense. I’d come to realise after looking at a few vans we’ll need to factor the cost of fitting stuff ourselves after finding the right van

 

[hogger]

12v appliances in our book are a waste of time,gas bottles and re fillable is relatively cheap in Spain,the other option is solar and lithium. As has been said find the right van first,ours had refillable gas and solar which is what we've always had and managed perfectly well.

Thanks that’s exactly what I wanted to know before going out and buying 12v stuff and wasting money. Thanks again

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[hogger]

You won't get a 12 v full sized kettle or air fryer the cables would need to be really thick with a big battery to.make them work. It's either change your habits to a gas fridge gas grill/ oven etc or decide that the appliances are really important and go for lots of solar lithium batteries a b2b new charger inverter etc probably a good few thousand all in if someone else fits it for the convenience.

Thank you. I think it will need to be solar/lithium then.

 

[hogger]

Layout is the most important issue, closely followed by layout and then finally the layout ....

All the rest are just 'toys' that can be added, changed etc

So if you can find the perfect layout that has all the extras then brilliant, but if you find the perfect layout at an affordable price then go for it and start to add the toys AFTER you've used it a few times, so you can work out what it is that you actually want or better still what you actually need!

Great info and as others have said. Van layout first second and last. The dealers we’ve been to have looked a bit vague when we ask about off grid set ups and not being fluent in Spanish on our part is making it difficult to communicate exactly what we want

 

[hogger]

The only 12v appliance we have is the tv. Everything else is 240v through the inverter or ehu .

Ah that’s interesting I didn’t know you could get a 12v telly. I’m not very technically knowledgeable unfortunately including electronics

 

[hogger]

My previous van was a 12v system (no 240) and it worked well for me.

However, I had LPG which powered my cooker and a diesel air heater.

I didn't have running hot water (kettle into an insulated pot worked well enough)

My rough 'rule of thumb' for the new van is that if anything has a high power draw then it's best on 240v (induction cooker, kettle, hairdryer type stuff) everything else is on the 12v circuit.

12v appliances worth buying include compressor fridges, lighting, radio/HiFi, TV

12v appliances not worth buying in my view would be hairdryer, kettle, rice cooker (yes, they exist) etc. They all sort of work up to a point but they'll take forever to do so.

Laptop charging, however, I think is best done from a proper USB C PD port so you're not going from 12v at the battery up to 240v at the inverter and then back down to 20v at the charger... It's a very inefficient way of doing it IMO. Even with pre-USB C laptops I used a 12v cigarette lighter adapter cable (£20 ish) which worked perfectly and more efficiently.

Many thanks for the info. Getting a bit technical for me…doh. But I get the gist

 

[fishplug]

The short version is "if you need it to get hot and don't want to wait an hour for it to do so then don't buy the 12v appliance"

Everything else should be fine.

Diesel heaters are the exception because they're using the diesel to generate the heat, not the electricity.

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[hogger]

If you're going to be in Spain most of the time don't bother with 12v appliances. Get as much solar on the roof as possible 400ah or more lithium battery and a 3000w inverter. Then you can run most 240v appliances and recharge batteries with plentiful solar. You can manage with no gas at all by having a diesel heater and a compressor fridge

Great thanks I understand and yes we will be mostly in Spain, France, Italy etc. we’ll go for plenty of solar and lithium then. Thanks for the info about solar I didn’t know how much to go for and as it’s sunny here in Spain I suppose any solar would work more efficiently so perhaps less is needed along with the storage to put it I.e lithium.

The short version is "if you need it to get hot and don't want to wait an hour for it to do so then don't buy the 12v appliance"

Everything else should be fine.

Diesel heaters are the exception because they're using the diesel to generate the heat, not the electricity.

thank you for the info, very helpful

 

[hogger]

Thanks everyone for your help. I think you’ve all answered my question and we’ll be going for solar/lithium set up as we plan to be off grid as much as possible