Power requirements ?

[headlight]

In preparation for possibly having the odd night or two not on EHU I have upgraded my battery set up.
I have gone from 1 X 100AH lead acid battery and split charge to 2 X 100AH lead acid batteries, 100 watt solar and split charge.
If I was intending doing much not on EHU I would probably go for lithium's, B2B and maybe 200-250 watts of solar but as I said I will only be having the very occasional night not on EHU.
My usage will be a few hours of 12v lights, water pump, 45 watt mains TV through an inverter and maybe charge 1 phone from the inverter.
On another thread I got the impression that my set up will struggle.
What do experienced members think as I have never been off EHU before.
Thanks in advance.

 

[tonka]

I cant see any issues at all. What you have there is almost the same as on our previous van and we managed fine on all the rallies we attended, some lasting 5-6 days. You are only going to struggle in winter or if your unlucky to hit a week of real bad weather ie rain and cloud every day.
The only way to find your limitations is to try it and see,
Biggest drain is obviously the TV at almost 5 amps an hour, as for the phone charge that from a USB socket or an adapter into a 12v cigarette socket.

My current set up is 2x 90amp lead acid batteries, 2x solar panels 200w total. Off today to do 6 nights at Stratford and dont expect to see any problems. Even use an 1100w inverter for hairdryer use and then odd day using a toaster or air fryer.

 

[headlight]

Thank you tonka

 

[Landy Andy]

I’ve got two leisure batteries at 100 each, no solar and have just done 4 nights without EHU or starting the engine. That’s showers/water heating, heating first thing in the mornings, an hour or so of tv each evening, charging phones iPads, and wife that likes to hold the fridge door open.

 

[headlight]

Thanks Landy Andy.
Phones will be fully charged when we arrive so if we're only off EHU for one night they won't need charging at all.

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[Lenny HB]

Just for a couple of nights no problem, just be careful of power usage outside of summer season. You should be OK May until September. A 12v TV will be more efficient.

 

[headlight]

Thanks Lenny

 

[headlight]

Out of interest any idea what my 45 watt mains TV will take running off an inverter ?
If it were a 12v TV it would draw 3.75 amps.
I read that inverters are 10-20% inefficient.
So if my inverter is 20% inefficient that would be .75amps.
So am I correct in thinking I would be looking at around 4.5 amps so to be safe say 5 amps an hour ?
With regards to my suitcase solar panels I am aware that the longer the cable run the more power you can lose.
If I wanted to extend the length of the cables on my suitcase solar panels by say 50% (from 10ft to 15ft) but replaced the entire existing 10ft cables with 15ft ones say twice the rating would I see much if any drop ?

 

[Sapper520]

Just done a couple of nights away, No EHU. Compressor fridge, 12v lighting and water pump. iPads, phones and Bluetooth speaker charged fully whilst on route.

130w solar panel and two 110 leisure batteries, one sunny day, the second cloudy with a little sunshine…….hardly made a dent in the batteries. My solar also charges the vehicle on a 70 / 30 split in favour of the leisure batteries.

 

[Brianmor]

We have a 100AH efb lead acid and 100w of solar and we were at Newark for 4 days couple of weeks ago. I took a spare battery just in case.
But using the lights, couple of hours TV and charging of 2 phones, 2 tablets the solar re-charged the battery 100% everday.
We're going to Stratford this week and I will take more beer and leave the spare battery at home