Charging on the move! Forums

janni

Inverter info on the forums very informative. As we plan to do a bit of Wild Camping a question re charging the leisure battery etc.

Can I use an inverter to charge up my laptop battery and Camera batteries whilst driving? I was interested to read about solar panels. Maplins have a good range and I wondered about using a solar panel to put a charge into the leisure battery whilst I use the inverter for the TV or CD player or the Laptop.

Is there a way of checking whether thw solar panel charges the main battery as against the leisure battery, or does it charge both?

Sorry about all the questions but I really am new to this. We.ve had a Trailer tent in the past when the boys were young, but things were quite primitive them.

Still looking at MH's. Quite keen on Swift Sundance as we like the idea of relaxing in the rear lounge in the evening, just the 3 of us, the navigator the wee 4 legged red head and me, chief cook and bottle washer!!.

The info in the various forums is excellent. keep up the good work.

Thanks, Janni.

Anonymous

Hi Janni,

>Can I use an inverter to charge up my laptop battery and Camera >batteries whilst driving?

Yes. and you can do it while the motor is not running, that is what the battery is for. its a storage unit.

>about solar panels. Maplins have a good range

But they are expensive from Maplin!!!

>I wondered about using a solar panel to put a charge into the leisure >battery whilst I use the inverter for the TV or CD player or the Laptop.

This will be fine.

>Is there a way of checking whether thw solar panel charges the main >battery as against the leisure battery, or does it charge both?

It will do what you wire it up to do, but if you are not useing your motor battery then there is no need to charge it. unless you are thinking of useing the panel to keep the batteries topped up over long periods of non use. in which case you will need a splitter diode so that the batteries are linked together.

Your questions are not very specific so its difficult to be specific with the answers. you need to do some calculations to find out what size panel you will need and what inverter size you will need and what battery size you have, all of these things are linked together.

Doug...

GeorgeTelford

Hi Janni

Charging batteries will driving via a small invertor is a good idea.

The Tiny panels at Maplins are OK for vehicle lay up (storage) ie they would stop the batteries depleting while its not in use, if you want panels that produce useable power they need to be 60 Watts and above each.

Re the wild camping, If you will be moving between wild camping spots regularly then a smart regulator will in a very short time produce far more useable power than a solar panel.

Consider a 64w Panel in a 6 sun hour day in Australia will produce 270 watts total thats only 22.5 Amps (on best day) In UK no were near as much.

A smart reg on even the smallest of alternators say 45 Amp alt will produce the same amount of power in half an hour (any and everytime guaranteed) A 90 Amp alternator will do it in 15 mins. Regardless of country and weather !

So if you are moving quite regularly a smart reg will do far more good, guaranteed.

To give a more detailed answer many questions need to be answered.

1. Mainly or all wild camping, never use a campsite
1a On one spot for 3 days +
1b Move every second day
2. as above but maybe 1 day week on campsite
2a On one spot for 3 Days+
2b Move every second day

Then the equipment you want to use (regularly)

TV, DVD, Sat TV, Playstation, slow cooker, Microwave, coffee machines, Lighting etc etc.

This info then gives you an average useage per day lets say its 25 Amps per day, this gives us a few pointers

To keep batteries in tip top condition 220 ah (2 X 110 ah batteries) battery bank to keep percentage of use to around 10%.

2 days would take about 20% out 3 days 30%

Then we need to consider recharging, solar in UK you would need 2 Panels (£700 ish) to keep up with 25 amp per day usage.

Or 1/2 hour driving

If you include a microwave, thats around 10 amps per 10 min warm up and obviously as a big impact on storage (batteries) and recharging.

Solar usefulness.

Stopping batteries depleting during layup. in the right country if on same spot long term, BUT this kind of system needs to be big and expensive to produce any worthwhile power. Or you need to be using very minimal power. Generally there are far beeter and easier ways.

janni

Thanks once again for the tips and hints. i will go away and do some calculations re; What I want - what I need - what I can afford!!

Thanks, Janni