Hi all you knowledgable guys out there,
My husb and myself have tried to get our heads round the power conundrum and still can't figure it out yet, so I hope someone can help explain this to us newbies with a bit more clarity than we currently have which is 1%. We cannot understand what we need to do to make sure our communication devices have adequate charge every day. The penny will have to drop some time, surely!?
We have a 20 year old imported hymer with an electroblok charger. We are going to get solar panels to stay off grid about 50% of the time on the 12 month journey we are about to start, but untill we know how much power we need we won't know what sized panels (wattage / voltage) to buy, and we are setting off in a couple of weeks.
My questions are
1. Do we need to calculate how much power the devices need to charge? If so, how? The laptop's got 19 amp written on the plug, and at home it takes about 2 hours to charge fully if I am not using it. Its usage will be blog posting and some photoshop work. Same charging time for my smart phone. Same question for the ipad (about 4 hours to charge then I have power for a few days)
2. How can we charge these things physically in the MH? Do the 3 pin electrical sockets deliver an appropriate charge when on hook up?
3. What difference will 3A, 6A or 16A hook up supply make, like in France? And off hook up - will they drain the batteries? Will the devices fry? We have been too scared to try.
4. How would solar panels affect this, and what size may we need, wintering in Spain and Morocco?
5. Is there a go-to information point which has all the answers simplified and illustrated??!
We will need to charge the laptop and 2 phones every alternate day day, and an ipad every 4 days. We only know how to plug them into the wall sockets at home, where the current / charge is domestic. We have no tv, or electrical appliances apart from these, have LED lights so won't be using much power. We have one new leisure battery - LFD90 Varta which should do us for a couple of days without these devices.
One more thing - I bought a 12v adapter from Maplins to plug into the cigarette lighter but it didn't 'fit' properly and just rattled around. Is this socket connected to the starter battery though, and therefore only be used when actually driving?
Sorry to take up so much space and ask so many questions - but we hope there will be lots of knowledge and help coming our way!
My husb and myself have tried to get our heads round the power conundrum and still can't figure it out yet, so I hope someone can help explain this to us newbies with a bit more clarity than we currently have which is 1%. We cannot understand what we need to do to make sure our communication devices have adequate charge every day. The penny will have to drop some time, surely!?
We have a 20 year old imported hymer with an electroblok charger. We are going to get solar panels to stay off grid about 50% of the time on the 12 month journey we are about to start, but untill we know how much power we need we won't know what sized panels (wattage / voltage) to buy, and we are setting off in a couple of weeks.
My questions are
1. Do we need to calculate how much power the devices need to charge? If so, how? The laptop's got 19 amp written on the plug, and at home it takes about 2 hours to charge fully if I am not using it. Its usage will be blog posting and some photoshop work. Same charging time for my smart phone. Same question for the ipad (about 4 hours to charge then I have power for a few days)
2. How can we charge these things physically in the MH? Do the 3 pin electrical sockets deliver an appropriate charge when on hook up?
3. What difference will 3A, 6A or 16A hook up supply make, like in France? And off hook up - will they drain the batteries? Will the devices fry? We have been too scared to try.
4. How would solar panels affect this, and what size may we need, wintering in Spain and Morocco?
5. Is there a go-to information point which has all the answers simplified and illustrated??!
We will need to charge the laptop and 2 phones every alternate day day, and an ipad every 4 days. We only know how to plug them into the wall sockets at home, where the current / charge is domestic. We have no tv, or electrical appliances apart from these, have LED lights so won't be using much power. We have one new leisure battery - LFD90 Varta which should do us for a couple of days without these devices.
One more thing - I bought a 12v adapter from Maplins to plug into the cigarette lighter but it didn't 'fit' properly and just rattled around. Is this socket connected to the starter battery though, and therefore only be used when actually driving?
Sorry to take up so much space and ask so many questions - but we hope there will be lots of knowledge and help coming our way!