Thanks for this.
Our aim at minute is stopping on sites with showers etc. Next year though, we're looking at the nc500 which will be a bit of off grid I assume. Slowly easing the Mrs in to the wild camping idea
Camper electrics
- Thread starter TheGrapeEscape
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Our aim at minute is stopping on sites with showers etc. Next year though, we're looking at the nc500 which will be a bit of off grid I assume. Slowly easing the Mrs in to the wild camping idea
Think of it all as a modular system. All you need to have now whilst doing the conversion is all the correctly rated cable installed for future upgrades.
You can keep your battery and CTEK and just add the Victron 240v 15a charger. Job done.
As long as you’ve run your solar cable while doing your install then at any time in the future you can add a Victron mppt and a solar panel very easily.
Swapping the battery to lithium is a straight swap at whatever stage you feel that the current battery isn’t meeting your requirements, and at that stage swap the dc-dc for one with a lithium profile. Just a plug and play straight swap.
The difficult to do part for any future upgrades is running cable inside/behind units and pop top roofs.
You can keep your battery and CTEK and just add the Victron 240v 15a charger. Job done.
As long as you’ve run your solar cable while doing your install then at any time in the future you can add a Victron mppt and a solar panel very easily.
Swapping the battery to lithium is a straight swap at whatever stage you feel that the current battery isn’t meeting your requirements, and at that stage swap the dc-dc for one with a lithium profile. Just a plug and play straight swap.
The difficult to do part for any future upgrades is running cable inside/behind units and pop top roofs.
Can't see what your current battery size is, but let me demonstrate - I had a factory fit 75Ah AGM with split charge, so 22.5Ah usable capacity (from 80% down to 50% state of charge). Parked up at a site, with no solar or hook up, from 4pm to 4pm the next day, my fridge and lights used 29Ah, so less than a day!
If you had a 110Ah AGM with a DC-DC, you'd have around 55Ah of usable capacity, so realistically, with light use, 1.5 days, or 40hrs off grid.
Sun in Scotland is never guaranteed, so if you decided to stay at a site or parkup for a couple of days with no hookup or solar, then you'd be on the limit. You'd then have to resort to driving somewhere or running the engine for half an hour to put some charge back in.
Start using the diesel heater, and that gets worse.
I've gone completely overkill in my setup but I wanted to make sure I never have to worry about power and should never have to use EHU unless I'm somewhere covered in snow, stationary for a week! I've got 230Ah of LiFePO4, 300w of solar to be installed, 50a DC-DC charger, and a 2000w inverter which gives me the option of running almost anything 240v - induction cooking, coffee machine, air fryer etc.
For most people, a 100Ah LiFePO4 and a couple of hundred watts of solar is more than enough to cover normal use.
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That makes sense.
I've been on a few websites, trying to understand it all, but there doesn't seem to be many around that explain it that way, they're just interested in the sales. We won't need a lot of power I assume, just regular things like tv/microwave etc while on site.
If you've only been away one night then I'd reiterate this advice, or get the IP22 version.
Use the van this season and see how you're going to use it before you spend £700 on new electric kits and add panels/LiFePo battery/Inverters to that. That might be a lot of money you don't need to spend if you are off EHU only 1 night at a time a handful of days a year.
Then fit what you know you want and need over winter.
Thank you.
The plan is to get a full kitchen, as I currently have a pod installed. With the kitchen in, the plan is to expand the electrics, but after today's replies, I think the ip65/22 unit may make a massive improvement
The plan is to get a full kitchen, as I currently have a pod installed. With the kitchen in, the plan is to expand the electrics, but after today's replies, I think the ip65/22 unit may make a massive improvement
Have a look at Climbingvan and Explorist.life both have really good explanations of various setups depending on need/usage.
I’d echo the advice above, you really need to understand your requirements first otherwise you will make an expensive and/or difficult to rectify mistake. Either kit you don’t need or having to retrofit stuff at a later date. I’d suggest just fitting a mains charger for now to allow use while on EHU and see how you get on with the off-grid stuff. I went for the ip65 charger as (if fitted with the quick release connection and a standard plug) it can also be used for the starter battery or other cars in the household. You can get a simple wall bracket for it for about £5.
I have just been through this and as a guide I have a 105ah lifepo4 battery and Victron DC-DC, iP65, MPPT and shunt and a 200w solar panel. This will run my fridge and basic USB charging, LED lights and occasional running of the diesel heater pretty much indefinitely with a bit of sun each day without starting the engine or needing EHU. I also have an Ablemail AMT12-2 to keep the starter battery topped up. If I had absolutely no input from the solar I’d still get 5-7 days off-grid which could be recharged in a 3 hour drive. I don’t have or need an inverter so a smaller battery (and associated cables) and simpler system works for me but still cost pushing £1000 all in.
As above, it's a really good idea to take all the devices you'll be running (and factor in devices you want to run but don't have yet), work out your daily Ah draw (simple maths, if a fridge pulls 1a on average, then it'll use 1a per hour, or 1Ah. In 24hrs it will have used 24Ah).
Once you have that, you can work out how long your battery will last with no charging.
Think about realistically, how often and how long will you be without hookup or solar. If your usage exceeds the capacity, you'll need to start putting that charge back into the battery. Being off grid with no EHU, and little solar is the biggest factor in sizing your battery. You need enough capacity to see you through the time you're not charging.
If you're adding solar, 100w will put in around 30Ah maximum on a full sun day. On a dull day you might still get a few Ah added back in.
@ginkster 5-7 days on a 105Ah with a fridge and zero solar might be pushing it, based on 25Ah per day you'd get 4x days max. However, with solar you'll almost never have zero solar for 4 straight days so even a tiny bit would put back in a days worth over 4 days.
Once you have that, you can work out how long your battery will last with no charging.
Think about realistically, how often and how long will you be without hookup or solar. If your usage exceeds the capacity, you'll need to start putting that charge back into the battery. Being off grid with no EHU, and little solar is the biggest factor in sizing your battery. You need enough capacity to see you through the time you're not charging.
If you're adding solar, 100w will put in around 30Ah maximum on a full sun day. On a dull day you might still get a few Ah added back in.
@ginkster 5-7 days on a 105Ah with a fridge and zero solar might be pushing it, based on 25Ah per day you'd get 4x days max. However, with solar you'll almost never have zero solar for 4 straight days so even a tiny bit would put back in a days worth over 4 days.
Perfect, thank you both. I'm actually an electrician, so the maths and installation side I should be okay with, it's just the figuring out what I needed is the hard part
12v electrics are child's play Vs 240v electrics!
I’ve done a couple of test runs including the initial chill of the fridge with only the battery (no solar fitted, EHU or starting) and got 6 days with power to spare (didn’t trust the BMS reading as it was an early discharge and pre-shunt and didn’t want to run totally flat so put it in charge) and 7 days with with 17% left on the shunt before I gave up. Granted it was only the fridge running with less than the normal number of openings (it’s a top loader so doesn’t make a massive difference anyhow) and not in the height of summer but the results were much better than I ever expected. With the solar any drain, including that used over night, is recovered easily even on an overcast day. That was with the fridge been left open and the Ablemail topping up a dying starter battery and doors (and interior lights) being opened lots. My target is 4 days off-grid any time of the year and I am pretty sure I’ve got that. First big test in 10 days time!
Nice! Although as you say, ambient temperature makes a big difference to the fridge compressor run time. Mine was in 22 degrees which equated to about 30-35 degrees inside the van!
My CRX50 style fridge is meant to run at 1-1.5Ah per hour. Which is about what I saw over a 24hr period.
Originally, I looked at upgrading my ctek to the seller model with this screen too. Now, I don't know if its needed.
having had one fail i wouldn't bother, use the one you have and if either it fails or you decide to upgrade to lithium change then to victron or renology
Well yes and no, you don't run into 100-200A circuit currents often in domestic 240v that many forum members are handling in their vans running inverters.
Off topic, of course but does the team think that leisure electrics will change to 24 or 48 volts DC over time or are we stuck at 12 volts by convention?
In the real world you're unlikely to get zapped by voltages below the 110 volts AC allowed on construction sites and a major plus of higher voltages is the proportionate reduction in current, good old Ohms law, meaning much thinner conductors at higher voltage needed to carry the leisure power to your induction hob and coffee machine.
In the real world you're unlikely to get zapped by voltages below the 110 volts AC allowed on construction sites and a major plus of higher voltages is the proportionate reduction in current, good old Ohms law, meaning much thinner conductors at higher voltage needed to carry the leisure power to your induction hob and coffee machine.
A lot of bigger campers with higher power requirements use 24v batteries, it does mean you can use lower amp and cheaper components for the same power. Running 2x 12v batteries in series is also popular which also gives a 24v battery bank. You can also buy off the shelf 24v leisure batteries.Off topic, of course but does the team think that leisure electrics will change to 24 or 48 volts DC over time or are we stuck at 12 volts by convention?
In the real world you're unlikely to get zapped by voltages below the 110 volts AC allowed on construction sites and a major plus of higher voltages is the proportionate reduction in current, good old Ohms law, meaning much thinner conductors at higher voltage needed to carry the leisure power to your induction hob and coffee machine.
It's less common in the T6 due to the size constraints, and we tend to not have hot water, air conditioning, max air fans, etc etc.
I’d say at this stage just stick to sorting all your wiring and stick with what you’ve got plus a Victron blue smart charger for the EHU.
Stay with the modular upgrade idea as your needs change.
My ctek250se had a problem (wiring) at the start of my 10 week road trip and you then realise you have no solar either. I’d not do an all in one in the future.
I installed a Victron mppt which will stay for good, even though I’ve fixed the ctek.
24v is popular in truck and marine as it's easier to get higher power charging. Not all of it's sane as I helped look after a Westerly yacht that had a Sea Panther (?) engine that had an unholy system of 24v alternator but 12v electrics.Off topic, of course but does the team think that leisure electrics will change to 24 or 48 volts DC over time or are we stuck at 12 volts by convention?
In the real world you're unlikely to get zapped by voltages below the 110 volts AC allowed on construction sites and a major plus of higher voltages is the proportionate reduction in current, good old Ohms law, meaning much thinner conductors at higher voltage needed to carry the leisure power to your induction hob and coffee machine.
48v is fast becoming the sweet spot for storage as it's just below the 50v SELV limit and is a sensible combination of cells for both lead acid and lithium. It's also a good voltage for modest solar generation.
I can't see it being used for everything downstream though as running electronics are still going to be in the 12-5v region.
Possibly a 48v primary battery and alternator, with heavy loads like heaters at 48v and electronic loads off a DC-DC supply might happen, especially as start stop / EV already does this.
Hi All,
So here's a pic of my current set up (minus the ctek) as that's hidden behind the pod.
I've ordered the victron smart ip65
Is it just a case of wiring the live and neg to the leisure battery, the plugging the 240v side into the socket on my 240v circuit? Or connect the live and neutral to the fuse carrier etc?
I know I sound like a total noob.....which I am
It comes with 8mm eyelets hence why I asked where to connect
So here's a pic of my current set up (minus the ctek) as that's hidden behind the pod.
I've ordered the victron smart ip65
Is it just a case of wiring the live and neg to the leisure battery, the plugging the 240v side into the socket on my 240v circuit? Or connect the live and neutral to the fuse carrier etc?
I know I sound like a total noob.....which I am
It comes with 8mm eyelets hence why I asked where to connect
