Okay, this is going to ramble a bit but thought I would add more than just a list
We had to replace camp chairs and tables as what we had were past it, looked at a few before buying the Kampa Easy-up chairs and while they are easy up and comfy I wish they stopped draughty and cold at the bottom of your back. Also got Caz a recliner from Mountain Warehouse in the sale.
Can’t believe the prices for stuff nowadays, not sure if it because I am married to a Yorkshire woman or not but anything camping or motorhome seems 4 times the cost of what it’s worth. Example, ask for cost of
solar panels to be fitted not including controller and get a price of a grand and change. I buy the panels, fixings, adhesive, corner and side mounting brackets, gland box for the roof AND get 2 x Bosch 90AH Powerframe batteries all for £400 and change. Okay say the batteries were labour and it’s only two and a half times more expensive when you relate it to Motorhome’s so....
I did the
solar upgrade as none were fitted and we run a compressor fridge, had read posts saying how bad these were and how they kill batteries so was lookimg at EHU every other day to stay safe. I now realise a lot of the posts are exaggerated but I wanted to make sure I have enough power, I have made a guess as to what we will get in winter and gone for 2x150w panels so far but can fit more before needing to swap any.
Initially fitted 1 x 150w panel as I wanted to utilise the EBL and that was pushing the limits of my model, actually that’s too big but unlikely to ever get maximum from panel and
fuse should protect EBL. I feed that to a Votronic 250 dual mppt controller (250 as that’s what the installers were going to fit) and use the Batt2 feed to send a constant (when harvesting) 1amp to starter
battery when it needs it, I also have the Votronic remote (wired) display. On sunny days we had this year up to mid June my batteries were full by noon.
I got the second 150w panel to try and make sure I have enough power in the winter months, this feeds through a tracer non ppt charge controller as I didn’t want to break the Votronic and I fitted the wireless transmitter to this so I can monitor on phone or tablet. We are intending jumping on a ferry either January or February and staying until it starts to get too warm but probably coming back end of May time. This should mean we get more sun than UK so may not need this panel but sooner too much than risk
battery damage plus I have another project to try out. Of course if we move every day the alternator would soon top up the batteries withou
solar but now we can stay if we want to until we need to move for other reasons.
While working through what we had it became evident the EBL was very underrated for the 270AH of
battery that was fitted and it would risk damaging the EBL if it was on EHU, the first upgrade was to get and fit a Schaudt mains charger that links to the EBL.
Our van is fitted with a calorifier for water heating so we can currently get hot water from running the engine or running the Eberspacher DT4 blown air heating. The engine coolant runs through a heat exchanger and through coils in the 22litre tank, the DT4 runs hot air through the heat exchanger. Either of these running will produce hot water, the engine needs around half an hour to get a tank full, not too sure on the heating as not had it on enough to know more than the fact it does warm water. When I checked the tank it has a 240v (mains) immersion heating element fitted that is not wired up. I am going to run some tests with a 12v 300w immersion element powered from batteries while
solar is harvesting and also test using the load terminals on one controller to see how well it works, if okay I will replace the 240v element for the 12v element with suitable controls fitted to prevent
battery discharge. We do of course have a kettle which will also heat water
I got a second hand Cadac Chef off a WC member and we are very pleased with it so far, not used much yet but what we have done tastes nicer than when we use the big gas bbq at home. Only downside is so many attachments/options so not suitable if you don’t have space and payload, don’t think we are likely to use pizza stone in van but Caz insists
We also bought a Cello Traveller 22” 12v tv, after I was discharged from A&E looking at prices that is
I went for the model that has rechargeable batteries, DTV tuner and Sat tuner built in but no DVD player. I was looking to run everything I could using
solar, as the sun doesn’t shine at night when we may use the tv getting one I could charge while the sun was out seemed sensible. We don’t use it much but I like to watch F1 races and while I can catch up at home it’s not the same and it’s hard to avoid all mention of who has won. We may end up getting a separate DVD at some point but I have an Amazon Fire Tv Stick with Kodi and it will play films and music from external USB so probably now.
One of the next things we get will probably be a second cassette for the toilet as that limits us to two or three days before we need to find somewhere to empty. I am also thinking about refillable gas in some way but can’t decide, one 6kg bottle lasts us for approx 35 days as we only have a 3 burner hob and grill that uses gas. Extended trip to France/Spain/whichever way we turn says some refillable is sensible
