How to thrive on a non 240v site!
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Well, whatever the technology breakthroughs in the future, we will still have to transport food, clothes, and everything else we use in a modern society so I hope they can get pantecnicans running on batteries- if they do, us lot should have no difficulties!
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solar panel help looking at a 150wt solar panel the folding type like a suit case with the solar controller attached to the solar panel with alligator clips to attach to the battery question is i have a 50wt panel which the controller is in the caravan which i attach it to the battery with mc4 connectors could i use them at the same time making it a 200wt power
thanks in advance
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Yes why not?
Croc clips aren't imho great for connecting to a battery I would be temped to make a permanent connection at the battery and get something like an Anderson plug to attach the panel even if it means moving the controller 150W panel is quite a big beast to handle
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Check whether your existing controller has sufficient capacity to handle the extra panel. It will probably need upgrading.
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hi thanks for your advice the 150wt suit case panel has its own solar controller on the back of the solar panel and i have separate controller in the van for the 50wt panel which i connect with mc4 the anderson plug sounds a good idea so would i be able to use them at the same time?
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Not sure hallagather but I can’t see a problem. However, a 150 w suitcase Panel should be adequate in most circumstances- mine is 135w roof mounted and that provides all we need. Yours can be directed at the sun all day long if you wanted too. Remember- Batteries in good condition are just as important as SPs.
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Well, I have put the van down for winter and got her ready for a service. We had a fabulous summer visiting North Norfolk, Wales, Dorset, Lake District and then back to Wales. Then we took the van up to Scotland to visit a new arrival- Rita, my thirteenth Grandchild. Scotland saw me on EHU as we were inside a large agricultural shed! Just have to be careful about the waste overflowing! (It didn’t) It was nice to have but very little difference to non EHU caravanning. We still space heated and water heated by gas as we didn’t want to use their electricity unnecessarily. All in all another highly successful year off grid!!
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I’m new to motor -homing and I have never gone off grid before. I have a 120w solar panel fitted to the roof, so that I can keep my 2 -110w batteries charged up. I m told I need an inverter.
1 what size inverter do I need?
2. Where is the best place to purchase these from?
3. How much should I expect to pay?
4. Where do I plug these in or how do I use them?
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It depends on what you intend to use it. The purpose of an inverter is to run stuff that cannot be run on 12v. Basically toaster, hairdryer and microwave, although the first can be done with gas and the second with 12V but it probably grow faster than you can dry it.
Cost depends on the output. Installation is best left to an expert if you want a trouble free experience. Like you, I'm new to MH, also with 120w of solar but atm only one leisure battery. I'm also thinking of an inverter for the microwave.
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Take a step back. Why do you need an inverter? What are you going to be running on it? An inverter converts 12v D.C. power into 240v AC power. As such it can potentially hammer your batteries I have heard of people installing inverters to charge phones or toothbrushes. Most things have 12v equivalents, so we don’t use an inverter, but we do charge phones kindles iPads even watch tv off ehu.
I would of thought this time of year a120W SP is going to keep up with demand it will help slow down the rate of discharge but not stop it. Six months time it will keep up fine.
I would if I were you work out your answers to the following questions,
1 When am I going off grid and for how long?
2 What do I want run that is mains powered?
3 Are there alternatives? For example we have a microwave which we use on ehu, off ehu we could source an inverter to power it. But I prefer to use it as a bread bin, and heat the milk for coffee in a pan and steam the veg
Your requirements are personal so it is hard to say what you might need
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That's a really useful post, Boff, thank you for it. I'd been thinking that after buying our folding solar panel an inverter was next on the list, but am realising more & more that in our low-tech caravan, (microwave - wot microwave?), we probably don't actually need one. We can do most things on gas or 12v recharging, other than the oil-filled 700W radiator, which would need power exactly when the panel/inverter combination would be least able to power it, so we'll probably have to stick to off-grid in the kinder months. Even without the heater the van's still warmer than the tent we've been using up until last year!
Your post tends to confirm my thinking, and save money and stressing about how to make it work as a very non-tech minded operator!1 -
Anthony, Boff's post is very sensible in that you should really ask the 'why/what' questions before divng in for an inverter.
we do many weeks a year off grid at CL or THS temp holiday sites and manage perfectly well with roof mounted 100w solar panel and two 95AH leisure batteries.
almost everything can be powered by gas or 12v.
....heat/hot water/hob/oven/hob kettle by gas
....lights/water pump/charging ipads etc by 12v
yes, we do have an inverter....it runs the Sky+ HD box (these are mains only these days) and the chargers for our electric bikes....
it is only 500w but manages these two tasks easily.
no microwave, no hairdryer (when offgrid, OH has short hair....)
one useful point, ensure tour panel charges the behicle battery as well as the leisure batteries, great for leaving van on the drive and maintaining cab battey even when using alarm etc.
also, be aware that some fancy head units (incl my whizzy Pioneer jobbie) can draw a massive amount of current (mine 1.8 amp) even when in 'standby' so remove 'security panel' or turn off isolation switch.
good luck.
PS......Hedgehurst, cant you heat your van by gas, i was confused by your oil filled radiator comment, dont power this for hours from an inverter.....
if you use this when in storage try and get a mains supply to the van.
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Thanks for the check BB! It's a very basic caravan. The only heating is a portable oil filled job, very effective when on EHU, but when we're heading off grid it'll simply get left behind. As I said, we'll stick to the warmer months for off-grid trips, as I'm currently ( no pun intended) minded not to go for the inverter. My wife has fairly short hair too, so hair dryer won't be a problem. No TV, no microwave. (Good heavens, these people are back in the mid-20th century!) There's a gas hob, fridge, & water heater. We might upgrade our old battery radio to a 12v one, and really push the boat out, though!
It's only a tiny van, so that little oil heater kept us nicely warm in the raw April winds of NW Scotland this year. Sadly, subsequent ill health meant that was our only real trip this year, and we've only had the van since this time last year, so we're now planning 2018, both on & off grid.
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On a snowy day in North Oxfordshire had time on my hands!
Just to let the non EHU/off grid fans know that Nick at clsites.co.uk has now listed all the non EHU sites in our Non Ehu database (Oct 2017 version).
He has given each CL listed a free Basic listing. This is the only site I know of where listings can be sorted by “no electric hookup”.
Our latest Non EHU Database V4 is here - added filter by postcode, also have produced a google map of all the Non EHU sites in the V4 list is here
You can zoom in and click on icons, will give CL name, address and hopefully a link to CAMC website listing0 -
For heating in a tiny van - just turn the oven/ hob on .
Be warm in no time !
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NO NO NO !!!!!! Carbon Monoxide IS A KILLER !!!7 -
Good one brue. Just had the fridge serviced and the cooker checked- vital for Non EHUers. Took the trouble to service the loo cassette. We have the C250 model and it’s 6 years old. Having finally got the mechanism out, I realised why it had been so difficult. The loo tank was plastered with lime scale! Every bit of mechanism and internal was covered with the stuff! I was quite surprised due to the fact that I had use biopods. Obviously they don’t clear lime scale! With rubber gloves with long gauntlets 🧤I cleared it all out and will remember from now on to use a descaler on it once a year!! New lip seal fitted- no obnoxious drips on my way to the emptying point now!
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The snow that fell last week and must have swathed the SP seems to have had no effect on the effectiveness of the it I couldn’t get there to clear the snow off the panel because of blocked roads but was able to go a week later and all was well with full batteries.
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Snow has to be pretty deep before it totally blocks out light.
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Yes, it has to be pretty deep Cyber but with the shorter days, cloudier skies and the sheer cold, I thought it might have an effect and if it did, there was no evidence of it. Now looking forward to our first foray in April to Norfolk Safefill and Panel at the ready!
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I checked my battery level yesterday and was somewhat surprised to find it was down at 12.55 and I only had a bit of snow on my panels for a day. The alarm runs off the MH battery so AFAIK there is no residual drain. I know we have had a lot of grey days but I would have thought there would have been sufficient to keep the voltage up to around 12.7 or even slightly above.
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mmm- I wonder if it was the sheer cold?? My panel has kept my Elecsol batteries at ‘full’ for four years. The problem being now that ‘full’ is not as full as it was 4 yrs ago. Still showing 13.8v but I know from last year that the batteries are weaker- a lot weaker than they were. Time to change them. Now looking at Lion battery from Roadpro who are just down the road from me relatively speaking. Non EHU demands good battery/s and panel/s and I ain’t going back to EHU. I will also add to the SP - another 100w will do nicely.
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You'll run out of roof space soon.
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Hi All off gridders!
I have now updated our sheadsheet database of the CAMC non EHU (Off Grid CLs)
It is available for anyone to view with the linkSHARING LINK: Click here to open the Non EHU CL sheet
The default view of the sheet should be CLs sorted by County. There are currently 434 listed on this sheet along with the postcodes.
You can scroll up and down the list on the right vertical scroll bar and left & right on the bottom scroll bar.
There are links to the CLs page listing on the CAMC website in column 5 which should open a separate page and take you there, to the right of that there will be a blue dot if they have images to view. To the right of this is a range of facilities available a dot against CLs row means available.
If you view the Non EHU CL Google sheet by clicking a sharing link or from the link above on this page on a computer you will be able to sort data by filtering what you do or don’t want (there are some “filter views” already set up! “A-Z County”, “A-Z CL Name” , Postcode, etc)
Look for Filter Views along the icon menu bar above the sheet for to the right will be a down arrow if you click that it will show the filterviews already set up go down and click the one you wish to view. You can also you hover over the top on the right of the column header (the cell where the letters are) a down type arrow will appear or if you see you will be able to sort sheet, click it and click sort A-Z (this work on the the dots as will group them all together!)If you find an issue or would like us to edit/add an entry please leave a comment on the sheet page or email me. We will update the Google sheet monthly after going through the Club Magazine CLs update page.
We have now produced a Google Map to show the location and info of each of the non EHU/Off Grid CLs visited in the April 2018 updated database Click here to view or it is embedded below. You can zoom in on the area you are interested in and click the icons, this will bring up the data on the CL.
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