Hi, I will probably be answering my question here myself but here goes..
Staying in a motorhome semi permanent, running a 140w solar panel to the leisure battery via a 20a controller, running off the leisure battery is a 600w inverter, plugged into that is a 10m extension cable, all I have for a moment,
I bought a 20L Mini fridge as the gas fridge doesn't work,I am slightly on a slope?no chance of changing that,
AC Power - Cooling - 55w / Heating 48w
DC Power - Cooling - 42w / Heating 36w
Also my 32" led 42w in ecomode,
I've had the fridge running all day, come back and put my TV on for 18mins and in inverter is beeping at me, check the battery light on the solar charge controller and it's red, meaning the power is drained, but then on my motorhome control panel the aux battery led is still green?
I gather running the fridge all day is culprit for the power drain,
I plugged in the fridge yesterday early evening and it was running for 24 hours
8-8, don't understand why I only got 18 mins out the tv, hoped it would last at least 2 hours.
Any solution you would undertake, don't think theirs any point getting gas as the incline
Any recommendations on wattage fridges,
Would a smaller fridge be better, or even downsizing the tv, but 42w is good for a TV isn't it?
I would be happy if I had 3 hours of tv, and anything that cools constantly, is that to much to ask for lol
55w on AC power is probably a good 80 watts from the inverter. Your probably not getting 140w from the panels either. Still a fair bit of cloud around at the moment.
Solution is to at least double the panel capacity and probably quadruple the battery capacity.
You want something in the region of 200 amps of storage to run the cooler for 24 hours. Then extra for the TV and lights etc.
The issue is the cooler is drawing power 24/7 when the panels are probably only supply 8 hours of charge.
Panels may need to be at least 250watts, But you also need the batteries to store the charge.
120amp battery to cover the time when the panels are not charging. But thats going to leave the battery dead which will shorten its life. So you need to increase the battery sizes or number of them.
Down in Devon had glorious sunshine from 8am till about 5pm then the direct sunshine is away from the panel, I will probably just have to keep the fridge off, and just turn it on when I get in the van, to keep things cold until I go to sleep, was just hoping to get alot more power obviously have to compromise, or just buy an ice box, might take the fridge back and get my £75 back
Anyone recommend a gas portable fridge, going to take back the fridge get 75 back for that, I did first of all used a 300w inverter from marlin at 49.99 which I thought was faulty as beeped at me, then I tried a 300w from argos at £30 beeped at me so thought I needed a powerful one so bought the 600w at £69.99, then realised the power was just draining nothing to do with the inverters, might revert back to the 300w just need the tv and mobile phone charging, so I'll get £40 back for that, so that's £125 towards a gas fridge?
Yeah I thought this but the van is on an incline, used stocks to lift it up, gone up top level on rear but using a spirit level still about an inch or more from being level, it's just a temporary measure if I can find a independent gas fridge I can level it by placing something underneath it, the fridge itself might work on level ground, the pilot light lights but stays the same size on all 3 gas settings, tried turning the fridge upside down, but still nothing
Battery is 75,no I can't level it, parked on a road which is a hill,outside my partners flat for wifi,well I think I am just going to refund everything, get back the £30 inverter, and just buy a cool box and ice packs, read this will keep things cool for 17hours so just need to swap over ice packs each day for the 4 nights a week I'll be in their, just wanted luxury I guess, but not practical
This is how it looks in their, I'm going to be spending 5 years in here til my loan is paid,only 4 nights a week, hopefully to save money as my monthly repayments are alot less than a rented flat,and at the end hoping I'll get 5k back for the van which will help towards a deposit on a house, well that's if it all works that way lol but so far I love it, just need to work out these teething problems
Only just bought this van, I thought their should only be one light on, showing the top led as green then if power drops below a certain level the led would swap to the lower one showing red, I this wrong? Should both be on?
Being blunt, you might be OK at the moment, but how are you going to cope when there is no sunshine for your solar panels to charge your battery and it is freezing cold outside?
The lights are not an LED battery level indicator. They just show whether it is on or receiving a charge. If you want to check your power then you need a proper volt meter.
If you let your battery drop to below 10v regularly you will need another battery very quickly.
Can you legally park outside your partners house and live in the van? What about tax and insurance? What address are you going to use for correspondence and legalities?
I presume your loan is your Student Loan? Why are you worrying about it? You will pay it back via deductions when your pay reaches a certain limit automatically, and it doesn't count or affect your credit weighting.
No I'm 37 sick and tired of being on the bread line, all these years I've paid dead rent money and council tax water bills electric and gas companys, never will I be able to save enough for a deposit, this is why I'm doing this, I'm paying money rent for something I will own, which I can then sell, plus money I'll save on the way, I'm only in it for 4 nights a week, where I am I think I'll be ok as I've lived in the street for 4 years so people know me, all correspondence will go to c/o address, I'll have a gas fire to use so won't be cold, nothing another blanket or duvet won't solve, well if the tv don't work in the winter I'll charge my laptop at said address which will give me 2 hours ish of tv via wifi, legally if the police turn up and ask me to move I'll just say I live just their and walk in my partners, failing that a couple of car parks I've researched are £8 a night for 24h although not legally allow sleeping, will not be enforceable, 5 years is a long time but the way things are 5 years renting privately and I'll still be in the same position as I am now
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Topic: solar power help
