I'm new to caravans, except for when I was a kid, but have been tent camping all my life.
We are buying a caravan to live in for several weeks while we wait for our house purchase to complete.
We have been offered to put the caravan on our neighbours land which apparently has water and electricity. I have just discovered that the electrical plug will be 200m or so away from where the caravan will be.
Having looked at 200m+ electrical extensions, it seems that this will be very difficult to achieve safely.
My next consideration was to buy a generator to power the caravan. We can't afford to spend much, but it seems that generators can be a very complex and potentially risky way of powering a caravan.
We do not need much power: the main consideration is that we have a working heated shower, which I think may be too much for a relatively affordable genni to cope with. We would also need to be able to run the lights, charge phones, and perhaps power a laptop, and perhaps power the fridge (though I think we could use gas?).
There would be no TV or kettle. From my research, it seems that we would need a pretty expensive 1200w inverted pure sine wave genni to achieve this. Am I correct in this? Is there anyway round this?
Currently I am considering whether its possible to run all these things from the leisure battery and gas, and then recharge the battery from the gennie.
Or buy two batteries, run everything from gas and battery (?) while charging the other with a mains charger at the wall socket 200m away.
Is this possible? I need to know whether this situation is viable basically by tomorrow!
My caravan is going to be a 1998 ABI Jubilee Rallyman, with a Carver Cascade Rapid GE water heater and an Electrolux 3 way fridge. No idea what the pump is...
As long as you make sure all connections are waterproof - you should be ok using 4 x 50 mtr extension cables. I think that would be the cheapest option.
What you could do is buy 2 x 100 mtr 2.5 mil cable from an electrical wholesaler and connect them with a waterproof junction box (from same shop)
The cable will cost about £90. When you have used it you may be able to sell it to an electrician.
If you used thinner (1.5mil) cable you would not be able to heat the water by electric. You would have to use gas.
So you don't think the voltage drop-off would cause problems? Do extension cables have any circuitry that prevents voltage drop-off issues (ie. you state that 4 x 50m would be okay)?
It seems that the 200m cable would: A)probably need a qualified electrician to setup, B)Be a pretty hefty, cumbersome piece of wiring; and C) Be quite expensive to get made and checked?
I'm not ruling it out, but i think in terms of cost and convenience, that may be a bit too much (we need to be in our caravan next weekend).
As for the gennie: from a quick google search it seems that a suitable 2000w inverted pure sine wave gennie would be around £600? If you can link to another suitable one cheaper then please do :)
I hear what you're saying about reselling afterwards: would it hold much value (80%+ ?). The main issue is that the initial outlay is getting more and more. We are already pushing the budget with the caravan, then an awning, then the gas bottles, then perhaps a couple of batteries. A expensive generator as well is going to really make us wonder whether it's best just to stay in a tent on a campsite!
The way we're thinking at the moment is to use two 120Ah batteries and gas. The gas will do our cooking and water heating, and the batteries will do our lights, water pump, and charge our phones / tablets. We can have one battery charging at the mains power socket while we use the other in the 'van.
Anything you think we may need to consider with this? I've learnt a lot about caravan electrics (and electricity in general) in the last few hours so I'm sure I've missed something. I think there is one Clipsal socket that I know of in the van which I'll get a cigarette USB adapter for. I was hoping I could use my 6v DAB radio in there but it seems there is no way to adapt from a Clipsal socket to a 3 pin plug so I can plug it in. I've given up on the possibility of powering a laptop. I can just charge it somewhere, or use my Windows tablet if need be.
This one is about as cheap as you will get for the output.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVO3000i-2-8kW-2800w-Portable-Leisure-Digital-Inverter-Low-Noise-230v-Generator-/291732573610
saxo1
* This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, as an eBay Partner Network member we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
Quote: Originally posted by saxo1 on 03/7/2016
This one is about as cheap as you will get for the output.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/EVO3000i-2-8kW-2800w-Portable-Leisure-Digital-Inverter-Low-Noise-230v-Generator-/291732573610
saxo1
Thanks for that, I will bear it in mind. Perhaps if we decide that just running from batteries is not enough we can get that one.
* This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, as an eBay Partner Network member we may earn a commission from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.
The batteries will be heavy to carry. What about a 100w solar panel on the roof? We manage quite easily with a 40w free standing panel for water pump, tv, lights and phones.
Quote: Originally posted by fleck2 on 04/7/2016
The batteries will be heavy to carry. What about a 100w solar panel on the roof? We manage quite easily with a 40w free standing panel for water pump, tv, lights and phones.
Yeah, perhaps! Hadn't really considered that. I presumed that UK skies and small solar panels just wouldn't be enough.
How much would something like that cost to buy and set up?
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Non hook up running of live-in caravan -
