Gas and electric usage (1 Viewer)

[Odd job]

I have just booked our first trip this year, it is in July so I'm hoping it will go ahead. The site I have booked is a CS with no facilities, I have never stayed on a site without EHU for 7 days before (I have had a sheltered life ) I have a solar panel, I have not had this before either, so I'm hoping the battery will last, I am worried about the battery it is 95AH and I have 100 w solar, I want to have TV and lighting plus charge 2 phones and the water pump.

Not too worried, but not sure about the gas I have 2 X 6 kg propane bottles, 1 is not full, I will have 2 fridges, hot water and if it gets cold (I hope not in July) heating plus BBQ and cooking etc. I can always pick up another bottle if needed.
Do you think it will last a week?

 

[Langtoftlad]

What's the worst that could happen?
Might have to go home a day or two early.

Water pump & phones negligible.
Is your lighting LED, if so negligible [long days, short nights]
TV is the only significant drain... and that depends on the TV and how long you watch it for.

In my case, the 120w solar has usually replenished the battery usage from the night before by the time I get up...

 

[Odd job]

What's the worst that could happen?
Might have to go home a day or two early.

Water pump & phones negligible.
Is your lighting LED, if so negligible [long days, short nights]
TV is the only significant drain... and that depends on the TV and how long you watch it for.

In my case, the 120w solar has usually replenished the battery usage from the night before by the time I get up...

All the lighting is LED and the TV is 12 volt we also watch movies downloaded to a phone and use a cable to play on the TV, I know that is power hungry so we may have to be careful

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[Kannon Fodda]

Make sure you charge phones and stuff earlier in the day so the solar has a chance to allow the battery to recover. Make sure the pitch is out in the open so the solar isn't shaded. If the weather is pants then solar may struggle to recharge heavier use, but provided you don't go mad battery should just about cope. After all in July it's not getting darker so you need lighting till at least 8pm, so your danger use is possibly the TV.

You can always go for a bit of a drive midweek to put some power in via engine (great if you have a B2B system), whilst you replace the gas cylinder that was only part filled.

 

[matt34]

gas will be fine with the amount your taking and lenght of time.

 

[Odd job]

Make sure you charge phones and stuff earlier in the day so the solar has a chance to allow the battery to recover. Make sure the pitch is out in the open so the solar isn't shaded. If the weather is pants then solar may struggle to recharge heavier use, but provided you don't go mad battery should just about cope. After all in July it's not getting darker so you need lighting till at least 8pm, so your danger use is possibly the TV.

You can always go for a bit of a drive midweek to put some power in via engine (great if you have a B2B system), whilst you replace the gas cylinder that was only part filled.

I have to confess, I have gone to the dark side! we used to have a PVC and the driving charged the battery no problem, but now we are tuggers so the van will be parked all week. We do have to come back home every 2 days to check on FIL so at worst I will have to bring the battery with me and put it on charge for a couple of hours at home. This is a trial for us and if it fails I will have to get more solar and possibly another battery

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[Charlie9038]

The dark side bonus is if you run out of gas you can nip out but I’m sure you will be fine.
chill & enjoy

 

[Richard n Ann]

I think you'll be fine with that set up. Our set up and usage is very similar and we cope easily, even on a cloudy day, as long as the cloud is white the battery will recharge fully during the day. We have the TV on for a couple of hours during the day and a couple of hours at night (at least)

In Benidorm the battery is full by 10am

 

[Stealaway]

I have a voltmeter and keep an eye on that. I turn the TV off when the voltage drops to 12.4V.
I will all depend on how sunny its been that day as to how long you be able to use it.
I do have bigger panels but I think it wonderful that the batteries are half charged again before I've even got out of bed.

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[busbuddy]

I reckon you will be fine depending how much your fridges use
If you are worried you could put all your lights and tv on tomorrow plus charge your phones and see how it copes by the time night comes

 

[WillH]

For many years we have been to France for between 2 and 3 weeks and always take two full 6kg bottles of gas. We have never started second bottle in all these years, even the year the electric element on the fridge packed up on day one.

 

[Richard n Ann]

You should get 6 or 7 amps from your panel in sunshine.

Mobile phone will use 0.5 amps for maybe an hour, then virtually nothing.
Our 18" TV takes about 2.5 amps
LED lights 1 amp typically (unless you like them all on )
Water pump about 3 or 4 amps but only for very short periods.

So even with the TV on during the day and charging 2 phones, there would still be at least 2.5 amps going into the battery and 3.5 when the phones have finished charging. If it's cloudy just leave the TV off during the day

PS if you get a BM1 battery monitor you'll know exactly how much power you have left in percentage/bargraph/time etc.

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[Madcaravanner]

I agree with everything Richard and Ann said

IF you feel like it double up your batteries if you have space and you should be OK as long as the sun shines a few hours a day

Last year we did 5 weeks and 800 miles we didn't have hook-up once (aires and Stellplatz only) we used around 3kg of gas (although we only have one fridge) and SWMBO had TV on every night

 

[Potty]

When tugging, we regularly spent up to 7 days on site with no EHU and no solar panels or LED lights back then. Check with the CS owner - they may offer battery charging.

 

[dunnah01]

Been wild camping for 12 weeks now - just make sure the fridge is on gas, if on 12v it will kill your batteries. Everything else should be fine although I get a bit nervous after 3 days with no sunshine, I have 360watt solar. At worst the engine will recharge the lot with a good run out if allowed.

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[DuxDeluxe]

All the lighting is LED and the TV is 12 volt we also watch movies downloaded to a phone and use a cable to play on the TV, I know that is power hungry so we may have to be careful

One slight caveat..... my van (and the last one) had all LED mood lighting which looks great. I was staggered at how much power they actually used. The reason was of course that there were a lot of them and although individually efficient, a lot of them are a very pretty power hog. Found out to my cost.........

 

[Kai Morrison]

You could always take the van out for a drive to charge the hab battery if solars not charging enough.

Kai

 

[Richard n Ann]

One slight caveat..... my van (and the last one) had all LED mood lighting which looks great. I was staggered at how much power they actually used. The reason was of course that there were a lot of them and although individually efficient, a lot of them are a very pretty power hog. Found out to my cost.........

I've noticed this too. LEDs are getting brighter not because they're more efficient but the manufacturers seem to be driving them harder. Years ago when I first read an LED heat dissipation article I thought wth? LEDs don't produce heat! ... well nowadays they are brighter and do. The latest tape I bought is 2 amps per metre at 12v and they get hot, so hot yesterday I pulled the diffuser off the aluminium channel they are in.

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[The Wino]

Been wild camping for 12 weeks now - just make sure the fridge is on gas, if on 12v it will kill your batteries. Everything else should be fine although I get a bit nervous after 3 days with no sunshine, I have 360watt solar. At worst the engine will recharge the lot with a good run out if allowed.

He's in a caravan!!!

 

[jdk62]

He's in a caravan!!!

Traitor....

 

[Kannon Fodda]

He's in a caravan!!!

Once hed'd admitted that we should have lost interest in this thread

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[mikebeaches]

So if you are driving the car regularly, as you indicated, you can always take some 12 volt power off the car battery via the towing electrics if required.

In our tugging days we didn't have a battery in the van - relied on car battery, including for TV. And no led lights then either...

Oh, and others have said, you'll be fine for gas.

 

[Kai Morrison]

Traitor....

Never seen this happen before...what do I do, what do I say....say nothing that’s right say nothing at all

 

[Ivory55]

Take some jump leads and you can connect them to your car and caravan batteries and run the engine in an emergency. I think that you have to turn your headlights on to trick the alternator in to being under load. More clever people will put you right.

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[Shrimp]

HEATING???
In July????

 

[busbuddy]

Fridges vary massively so that's your biggest gas usage, I remember when I first came on here and lenny said how much gas he used and I thought he was having a laugh and I said so but on googling it I found modern fridges use a lot of gas
I can do 10 days in September with a 160w panel, 2x110ah batteries and run hairdryer, smart phones, laptops, pit lights and never ran out

 

[Odd job]

HEATING???
In July????

I really hope not, we had the heating on last night, in June

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[Odd job]

Thank you everyone for all the advice, we have been motorhoming for years but we are new to solar, the panel came with the caravan and we have not used it yet. When we had the MoHo we never had a problem because we would drive it at least every 3 days and that would charge the battery. Now we think driving the caravan may not be so easy

 

[AXO66]

Download a couple of films onto a tablet so you have backup entertainment if you have a ”bad battery day”