Off grid for first time - any tips?
hello we are hopefully going to try a couple of ths in august so wondered if you more experienced had any tips ? We went to visit caravan in storage and tried , the boiler on gas (it worked) and the fridge which only worked when i took the vent off (id read
this somewhere) am looking forward to it , will the tv last for long and will the integral dvd player wirk ?weve always been on hookup but thought we would try a cheaper option cheers mrs bc:) we once went in our then motorhome to a ths in ripon and sat in
dark with no music cos i thought you just flipped a switch to battery and everything wirked ... Doh! I know a little more now 
Comments
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Depends what voltage it all works off. If it's 12v then you should be ok for a few hours. You need to know your battery capacity and then halve it. This will give you the power available. If you take the battery down below 1/2 capacity it may never charge up again. You certainly don't want to flaten it that is for sure. LED Lights use very little power. 12v TV uses about 5 amps ( Look on the back for the input ) so will probably work for 10 hours on a 100 amp battery.
If you don't have any way of charging the battery you are probably limited to a couple of nights. Longer if you read a book
using a torch.An inverter which converts your 12v to 240v will use a lot of power just being on. They are about 80% efficient at their rated output. Far less if you are not using the power. Always use the smallest inverter possible ideally a pure sine wave one.
If you are thinking of Off Grid more often then a solar panel may help you last longer.
Lot of the CL sites now offer electric and you have to pay if you want it or not. C&CC sites offer Electric or Not with a reduced price.
Have fun. We have a Motorhome and managed 14 days without going near a site earlier in the year down on the south coast.
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I have lasted 2 weeks on a 85amp battery in summer but did not use a tv. A tv is quite a heavy consumer so you need to keep an eye on how the battery is coping. I now have a 110amp battery and a 120 solar panel which keeps the battery topped up even whilst
using a tv. Just one other point if you need to use a motor mover it can draw a lot from a battery.0 -
Thanks for replies altho its an old hymer caravan it does have two solar panels on the roof , which i havent put to the test yet , i find battery energy (inverters , sine , volts etc baffling and its gobbledegook to me , its looking at words that actually
wont sink in to my grey matter no matter how hard i try ) but am determined to give it a go , cos theres a lot of ths out there and im going to give em a go cheers mrs bc
ps or even a cl/cs0 -
We have a solar panel, but don't have an inverter. We will be off grid for periods in the next 6 weeks. We don't have a TV in the van so no problem there. We do have 12v chargers for phones, camera battery's etc. It's light till gone 9pm so we only use
the lights for a couple of hours a day.0 -
You will be fine don't worry.
If you going to a site with ehu before you go off EHu don't plug in. This will simply check that your battery is healthy.
Last December we took our new Hymer straight from the dealer on a field rally. We used everything for 2 days TV Alde heating etc before I realised the solar panel wasn't working. It wasn't a problem.
Imho peole make a much bigger deal about going off ehu than they need to.
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Don't think it's a matter of making a big deal Boff I believe it's a matter of confidence
I agree actually. Just think that there is too much speculation and debate. Just do it.
I believe what you need to go off grid for a few days is a healthy battery and enough gas
ps LED lights use about 20% of a halogen of equivalent brightness. Our first Hymer had a 12v 60W incandescent bulb and that was a waste of power.
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If you have solar already you are well away! I was off grid £4 a night cheaper last weekend and it was Wimbledon finals!! So masses of tv! I have a Lidl (or Aldi?) small inverter that I have in the car and it kept the iPad charged up. The only mistake
I made was not watching gas levels so paid for hook up on Sunday night to be sure the full fridge kept going. I had a busy day Sunday and didn't need to add searching for gas filling point. £4 a night saving makes me more determined to keep free of the umbilical!
It was the other club and they have plenty of non-EHU pitches often not in demand. (I didn't even have to move either as there was a hook up near enough).0 -
Depends what voltage it all works off. If it's 12v then you should be ok for a few hours. You need to know your battery capacity and then halve it. This will give you the power available. If you take the battery down below 1/2 capacity it may never charge
up again. You certainly don't want to flaten it that is for sure. LED Lights use very little power. 12v TV uses about 5 amps ( Look on the back for the input ) so will probably work for 10 hours on a 100 amp battery.If you don't have any way of charging the battery you are probably limited to a couple of nights. Longer if you read a book
using
a torch.An inverter which converts your 12v to 240v will use a lot of power just being on. They are about 80% efficient at their rated output. Far less if you are not using the power. Always use the smallest inverter possible ideally a pure sine wave one.
If you are thinking of Off Grid more often then a solar panel may help you last longer.
Lot of the CL sites now offer electric and you have to pay if you want it or not. C&CC sites offer Electric or Not with a reduced price.
Have fun. We have a Motorhome and managed 14 days without going near a site earlier in the year down on the south coast.
Write your comments here...
I'm not sure where you get the notion that a battery will only work for a couple of days off EHU, certainly not from our experience of 6 days + at music festivals, or from others posting on CT. And our durations can be extended further with a solar panel.
You'll need to be sparing with TV though, and sensible with lights, but even a 5 year old battery has served us fine.0 -
this confidence thing applies in all walks of life....
you need to try something (successfully) to acquire confidence, that confidence then encourages you to do more...
so, first step, get out there and give it a go..
..as Jenny says, youll be (pleasantly) surprised how far an armful of amps will go....
just be wary of the tv for extended periods, similarly inbuilt radio/DVD players.
in summer you wont need the heating, so no ALDE or Truma pumps and fans, and the sun is (reputedly) out for longer, replenishing your battery.
good luck, enjoy!
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Dependant on the size of solar panel, you may well be able to survive indefinitely without EHU (at least during summer anyway!). We have a 100w panel on the roof, and have no problem, even on shady pitches. We don't have a TV, but do use the radio a reasonable
amount. You can work out whether the solar panel is working or not based on the voltage at the battery terminals. If your solar panel is doing its job, I would expect somewhere between about 13.5 and 14.7v at the battery terminals (14.7 if fully charged and
it is just on trickle charge). A fully charged battery is around about 12.7v if left standing for a few hours... so certainly if measuring over 13v then the solar panel is providing power! If you don't know the power of the solar panel, post the dimensions
cm X cm and I will have a guess at the power (or just compare to ones on ebay etc)...0 -
Rather than worrying how much power you will need for all the gear that you have at home, I work on the principle of "How much do I really need in the van ?" I don't actually NEED a TV (though I use a small radio), I don't need internet, I don't need
a microwave and the boss doesn't need a hairdryer.... etcIf all you need is lights, the pump and some other minor usage, the battery will last for quite a long time - especially if you use LED lights. If you have a small solar panel, you should be OK.
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We are going for two weeks off grid in summer. Using a solar panel (portable) we find we can have as much tv as we like in the summer (it may be worth confirming your panels are working as otherwise TV will need to be extremely limited.) I also don't understand
inverters etc so the one sacrifice I have to make is not having a hairdryer. For the savings we make on a non EHU, this is a price I'm willing to pay......reluctantly
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I like being off grid, we use a 100w solar roof panel, we sometimes have the TV on for an hour, news and weather and then listen to our solar/wind up radio. It's worth being kitted up with a small inverter to charge phones etc. I've even used the next to useless 12v hairdryer! Solar and wind up lanterns are useful. We don't have a huge battery either but it's in good order and fully charged. Will be on Steamer Quay soon for a short break. We manage on rallies and I quite like the peace and quiet! Non EHU gives you lots of choices, have fun.
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You don't need an inverter to charge your phones. Just use a car charger as they are 12v. Using an inverter more than doubles the amount you take from your battery. There are a lot of 12v products about, some of which are pretty useless. Every August I spend most of August on a THS using gas and solar for a very comfortable existance.
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I simply sourced (Amazon) 12v leads for all my cameras, phones etc and use the 12v sockets in the caravan.
We even use a laptop as a TV with a 12v cable plugged into the caravan. On a EHU, I still charge up everything via the on board 12v sockets.
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If all your kit is charged through their USB ports there is no need for an invertor leaving more power for other things; but you must do what works for you
.Apologies DD, I got it wrong, we do use a small inverter but the cig socket bit isn't an inverter..
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I simply sourced (Amazon) 12v leads for all my cameras, phones etc and use the 12v sockets in the caravan.
We even use a laptop as a TV with a 12v cable plugged into the caravan. On a EHU, I still charge up everything via the on board 12v sockets.
...as do we, Fysh..
...and, like DD we just use the 'DIN Hella plug to USB' converter that we got from ebay....it says close to the front 12v socket ready for when we get to site, though it can also be charging kit while we're driving...
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Thanks you lot ,so i can charge phones in car , kindle before i leave home (it lasts ages) small roberts radio has batteries, (cos it hasnt got a lead anyway) cooking with gas , gas kettle , no hairdryer (gulp), so i will use 12 v for tv and combined dvd(i
like to watch a film or an old series but never tune telly in altho its got a v good airiel) just for couple of hours at night , and will use one reading light for the better half cos he reads man stuff like war mags , true crimes ,and all the other grisly
stuff that men like (phew has there been a military coup in turkey while im writing this ??) cheers mrs bc whose looking forward to off gridding0 -
Just a couple of Hymer specific thoughts. In the Hymer all the lights will be 12v. You can buy led versions cheaply now. These can be a direct swap of the bulbs. You probably need LED bulbs in the 2-3 W range anything with a higher wattage can be to
bright but that is just my opinion.Secondly your Hymer may be fitted with 12v cigarette type plugs just check that your chargers fit. Because some of them might be the narrower "hella" type and you need an Adaptor, which are easy to source.
Finally a word about the wiring in my last two Hymers on the 12v plugs there is a blue wire and a brown wire however the blue is positive and the brown negative the reverse of normal wiring So check and don't do what I did and blow up a TV
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Some good points from Boff.
If you do have a Hella socket (better than a cig lighter IMHO) and want to charge phones etc. with a USB lead then I would recommend one of these:
A point worth noting is that USB adaptor is a 3.3Amp unit which is unusually high powered and so ideal for charging things like tablets as well as phones and cameras.
A lot of the seemingly better value units can be too low a powered, one I note being 0.5 Amps, others 1.1 and 2.2 Amps. I would recommend buying only the 2.2 Amp or higher units so they suit anything likely to require charging.
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