Can anyone give me some advice on the best way for keeping your battery topped up while caravanning in the winter months without electric hook up. I have got a 80w solar panel but have been told with using the gas heating and blowing the warm air around the van it will soon drain your battery. I have thought about a silent generator to make sure the battery is topped up but not keen due to the noise. Can anyone help with advice?
we camp all year round and for a week over the new year period. we just make sure battery is fully charged, connect our 60w solar panel, we leave our fire on number 1 all day when in the van or out and it keeps it realy toastie, you can't realy use blown air heating--vent the caravan at night because of condensation. We manage superbly. give it a go--we only go on EHU for 1 night per year. good luck.
If you are using your car during the day, why not keep a spare caravan battery in the boot and charge it with a plug from the 12n socket into the car boot.
You would only require the + & - for the caravan battery charging system.
Yes the modern van designers don't seem to take into account that electric hook up isn't always available . The new systems don't really support a rallying way of life anymore , it's a shame and cuts down the number of caravans suitable for your purpose . Maybe linking in an additional solar panel may help . I would advise against the generator route , non are silent even the expensive ones will annoy your neighbours after a relatively short length of time .
A second 80W panel is handy in the winter but more important is a second battery as there will be times when you will get very little power from the panels for a few days at a time and then stored power becomes crucial. Some of the PWM solar regulators have the facility to charge two batteries with one taking preference. The advantage of this is on days when you do get a lot of light you can get a good utilisation of the panels to get power into both batteries. I keep looking for a similar controller using MPPT but not found any yet. My generator sits in my garage most of the time but I do take it with me if snow is predicted and I am likely to get stuck on site for a few days - solar is not great with snow on the panels.....
------------- 'A sure cure for sea-sickness is to sit under a tree'
well our solar panel takes in during the winter--it may be not as much as in the sun but it keeps the battery topped up to 131/2. Forgot to say we are all changed to LED's in the van.
Quote: Originally posted by Colbourne78 on 02/11/2013
Can anyone give me some advice on the best way for keeping your battery topped up while caravanning in the winter months without electric hook up. I have got a 80w solar panel but have been told with using the gas heating and blowing the warm air around the van it will soon drain your battery. I have thought about a silent generator to make sure the battery is topped up but not keen due to the noise. Can anyone help with advice?
Using gas to keep your van warm is expensive at the best of time unless you have refillable cylinders.
Why don't you use site's with EHU in the winter months which will work out cheaper and go on non EHU site's during the warmer weather
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Topic: Winter camping
