We've only had our Duetto 6 months or so(our first van!)and up until now we've always stayed on sites with hook-ups but now with summer coming(!?),we'll be off to festivals(sort of wild camping?) for 4-5 days at a time and relying on battery and gas.
We wouldn't be using any TVs,laptops etc...and the lights aren't a problem,as we'd just use our camping lanterns(battery)..But I'm unsure as to how heavy on gas, fridges are?..
...if gas consumption is a problem,I was thinking that as it's not possible to run the fridge off 12v without the engine running(for obvious reasons!) of maybe using a 12v coolbox,connected to the leisure battery(via a fused socket) and perhaps also using a plug-in solar panel to help top up(..if these are of any REAL benefit?)...
On the subject of the solar panel,would just "pluging it in" to the cab cigar lighter, be just feeding the vehicle battery? and that it really would need to be connected to the leisure battery?
Sorry if all of that was a bit of a waffle!
Any feedback from those in the know,would be very much appreciated!
Fridges aren't that heavy on gas. Do you have a Campingaz 907 fitted to the Duetto? You will get many long weekends using it for cooking and fridge. A 12v coolbox would flatten a bettery quickly. There have been many discussions on this elsewhere on this forum.
Your leisure battery should run lights and water pump easily for 5 days.
A friend has a briefcase type solar panel for charging phones etc, but your battery would do that as well.
As for having a proper solar panel, sorry I don't know much about them. Yet.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
I reckon you'll get weeks of use out of your gas bottles, if you use the 6kg onefirst and swap over to the small one when it runs out I doubt you'll ever have a problem- so long as you remember to replace the empty one asap!. Dont know for sure how long it will last as our kg propane is still going after a year (but we do always use ehu's)
Quote: Originally posted by silverwood on 30/4/2008
Your van needs to be level to run the fridge on gas, no more than 3 - 5 degrees off level
mick
Oh!..of cause,I'd forgot about that!...As we'll be pitching on uneven farmland,I doubt we'll get within those tolerances,even with using levelling blocks..
I think you'll find that the fridge is biggest user of gas 'cause it's on 24 hrs / day.
You should've received the manual for the fridge and this will say how many grams / hr it uses on the high / med / low settings. Similarly with the cooker / heater / etc.
But if you use the 6 kg as your main gas supply, and switch to the 3.8 kg when you run out, and replace the 6 kg promptly (as little jack says) it should last ages.
What I've done in the past is put 2 freezer packs in the freezer part of the fridge during the day, and then in the evening, when the ambient temp falls, put the packs into the fridge and turn the fridge off ! Re-light in the morning and repeat. It works.
If I were you I'd get a 40 to 50 amp solar panel and fit it myself. It's fairly straightforward and I've 'free camped' for 5 / 6 days (late spring, summer, early autumn), also using a 12 v tv for approx 2 hrs / day with this set up.
All this has made us look again at just what/how exactly,we'd be using our fridge for,during a 4-5 day music festival..
We've been camping in tents at festivals for umpteen years with nothing more that a cool box(..with freezer blocks & frozen bottles of water to keep it cool).
And although I really like the idea of being "self sufficient",power wise,looking at it again I'm not convinced the outlay,be it solar panels or a generator, is justified in our case..(..just to possibly store the odd pack of bacon and a tub of marg' )
We'd be taking the coolbox as well anyway,for extra beer storage capacity!
You should be able to run you rfridge easly for that lenght of time, and also cooking etc, if you are worried about it, get a 13KG cylinder, and keep the 6 in reserve. I only take one cylinder with me at a time, (13kg self re-fillable)
Uneven ground is not so much an issue, as long as you are not on a serve slop, we have used ours on inclines with no issues.
Solar is better than generator, you do not impose your noise on others, cleaner also. we had solar panel on our previous unit, I will be adding this to the one that came on the new MH, so will have about 220W of potential solar power, now that will keep your batteries charged!!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: A couple of electrical/gas queries?
)
