Sunday, Feb 21, 2010 at 22:04
I second Crackles remarks. First - define the requirements. Our Blog,
Electricity for Camping may help. It is pitched mainly at camping rather than caravans, but a lot of it is directly relevent.
Of critical importance will be the fridge. It will not be feasible to run a 3 way fridge off batteries, as these fridges typically draw 12 amps or more continuously when on 12 volts. Gas when stationary would be the way to go. I would suggest that two seperate +12V cables might run from the engine bay to the caravan, one dedicated to running the fridge when travelling, the other to charging the battery/s in the van. Provided these are good heavy cables you should get a reasonable charge into the battery/s but you might also need to budget for a 12v to 12v (battery to battery) charger to ensure that sufficient charge reaches the van from the alternator. Depending on duration away from mains power, and length of time when not driving, there may be need to consider solar charging, but that's big $$ and it's too early to look into that. First - the energy budget - try to identify, at least roughly, the likely demand for electricity.
Suggest
check out the blog, try to define the overall demand as Crackles proposes and get back to us. There's a lot of expertise and experience on this
forum, lots of helpful people - you'll get lots of helpful ideas.
Cheers
John | J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
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