HELP WITH SETTING UP STATIONARY VAN WITH POWER

Hi Mark,
I have a van set up like yours & have a 180Watt inverter to run 240volt COMPACT FLOURO van lights & charge camera batteries. My fridge is an Engel compressor fridge & I run that on 12v.

So I have:-
130AH Deep cycle Battery.
180 Watt Pure sine wave inverter
900 watt Generator
16 amp Smart Charger.

I can run everything for 2 or 3 days max depending on the ambient temps & it takes 6 to 8 hrs of Gennie run time to get the Battery back up to full charge. No solar panel as yet.

You would need a bigger inverter than me to run a TV & water pump & likely need 2 130 AH batteries in Parallel in order to not have to run the Gennie every day. Make sure you get a pure Sine Wave inverter as it not worth messing about with the cheap modified wave inverters.

DO NOT try to run a 3 way fridge off this system on 12 volt as they consume way too much power. Use a compressor fridge like Engel or Waeco.

If its an old van like mine replace van lights with compact Flouros.

DO NOT run the batteries down to less than 50%. Get a voltage monitor.

I am sure you can get someone here to help calculate the Panel capacities you would need for your Panels.

Cheers
Stu

I have a similar setup at our bush block with a small cottage. I have a ute with 320watts of solar panels charging 3x100 amphour batteries. We stay for a week at a time so need plenty of food so have a waeco 80litre fridge/freezer and a 45litre Evakool fridge, all 12volt compressor. We have a diesel generator that is only used if it is overcast for 3 days. I endorse the use of the sine wave inverter, ours is 300watt as some of the fluro bulbs cannot handle the modified sine wave. I also use a Cpap with humidifier every night so thar requires more power. The generator is big enough to run my welder and the dearly beloved's turbo oven, she doesnt like roughing it. My system has evolved over the years and works very successfully.
Owing to the thieves most of the above travels backwards and forwards each time. I have also installed multiple motion activated security cameras on the property.
Hope this helps.
Geoff

Hi Mark K3,

It has been suggested, and I subscribe to the philosophy, that for each 100amps of battery power you should have 100Watts of solar panel as a bare minimum for continued use as you are suggesting, 4 continuous days at a time.

An MPPT solar regulator is advisable and preferred but PWM is also OK.

So as solar panels are getting cheaper by the day I would recommend 2 X 200 watt 12 volt panels coupled to at least 2 X 100 or 2 X 120 amp batteries as a permanent setup.

Now you have not mentioned whether you wish to take them back with you when you leave the van so in that case this system may be a bit large for that purpose although the convenience of fixed may outweigh the inconvenience of transporting them..
As a fixed installation though it would be a good start.

You also do not state whether your frig is a 3 way or a dedicated 240Volt unit.
Where possible run the frig on gas if indeed it is possible to do so. Never on 12 volts if it is a 3 way frig in this situation.

12 Volt Digital LED TVs are fairly cheap these days so that is the way I would go. I have purchased 5, for myself and others, and have not paid anymore than $160 for them, a couple were as low as $130. All are still performing brilliantly after a couple of years.
( I watch one every night)

LED lighting is pretty cheap now as well and those 5 metre strings of LEDs are brilliant at around $15 or so each. If you can solder a wire on to a connection you can handle those things easily.

All else could be run from a small inverter, I guess, though I never use them preferring to go all 12 volts. I have purchase 12 volt chargers for all my camera batteries and for the laptop and I find that my system works very well, for me.

Note that you will still get some charging on overcast days also. If the system is left permanently set up the batteries will be fully charged whenever you arrive at the caravan.

Security may be the only dark cloud on the horizon.

Cheers, Bruce.