Another milestone - 3 nights without EHU! (1 Viewer)

[daventess]

Wanted to test my new solar/lithium install in the UK before leaving for Europe.
Stayed in two pubs for one night each, then a C&MC site just to empty everything out and use a proper loo ...

We used the microwave, air fryer and toaster every day, and we left for home this morning with 51% in the battery! We were rather lucky with the weather for the last few days, but even so I was well impressed with that!

Next milestones are - empty my waste water, legally and ethically, at somewhere other than a site we are staying at, and to stop thinking of the van loo as not a proper loo...

 

[daventess]

We are off-grid for weeks at a time when we go to France, and while some aires have a 6A EHU, we rarely bother using it.

Total 12v power is just two 90ah batteries and 180w of solar... fridge is 12v compressor.. so not using a lot of gas... that's it.

We don't take any 240v domestic appliances as we can't use them, and I don't see the point of spending £ks on a lithium set up just to do so.

I've still to be convinced it's a worthwhile investment ..

That's what I love about motorhoming, you really can just do it how you like. We wanted 240v appliances because we knew we could have them if we increased the set up, so that's what we did.

I don't see the need to convince anyone of anything; for me self levelling is last on the list. I'd rather get an incinerating toilet first

 

[scotjimland]

I don't see the need to convince anyone of anything; for me self levelling is last on the list. I'd rather get an incinerating toilet first

fair enough .. but don't fancy an incinerating toilet .. lol

 

[Gina M]

The first time we did 3 nights without EHU I was too scared to use anything. But the second time we stayed on a farm so I was more confident as I could go to the farmer if I was desperate for gas or anything and we had everything on, heating, tv, cooking the lot and were absolutely fine and Mr Gina M had a big smile on his face the whole time as we weren't paying for EHU

 

[daventess]

The first time we did 3 nights without EHU I was too scared to use anything. But the second time we stayed on a farm so I was more confident as I could go to the farmer if I was desperate for gas or anything and we had everything on, heating, tv, cooking the lot and were absolutely fine and Mr Gina M had a big smile on his face the whole time as we weren't paying for EHU

That was our first idea, too. Go to a site but don't plug anything in. In the end we just thought what the hell We weren't actually all that far from home, so if it all went wrong it wasn't the end of the world.

But it was terribly exciting

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[daventess]

fair enough .. but don't fancy an incinerating toilet .. lol

I like the idea of never emptying the loo again (in the conventional way), but I don't know anyone who has one, so it might just be rubbish

 

[AdrianChen]

Fridge probably wasn't running & the B2B would have been cold.

I wonder if he disconnected the starter battery cable from b1, hence no voltage showing on the panel - this might have been done to get round the SCR in the DS470? Cold the Orion usually put out the full 30amps, reducing quite quickly after 20-30mins.

 

[Lenny HB]

The first time we did 3 nights without EHU I was too scared to use anything

I don't get this modem trend of being frightened of going off grid without EHU.
I've been camping since I was 15 in one form or another. Tents, trailer tents caravans & Motorhomes never felt the need for EHU it's an unnecessary luxury.

Surely a Motorhome should be self sufficient that's the whole idea of them.

 

[Gina M]

We were newbies

 

[daventess]

I've been camping since I was 15 in one form or another.

That's probably why you don't get it - you've been doing it for 7 or more years

I've been camping on and off since ... Feb last year. But we're getting better

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[Lenny HB]

That's probably why you don't get it - you've been doing it for 7 or more years

A bit longer than that not quite 60 years.

 

[funflair]

I like the idea of never emptying the loo again (in the conventional way), but I don't know anyone who has one, so it might just be rubbish

Incinerating take a lot of gas I think, there are other options though called separating or rather inaccurately "composting toilets" we have a black tank so can go a couple of weeks and then just need a drive over drain, I wouldn't want to go back to a cassette.

 

[Kannon Fodda]

Yay it's a toilet thread

 

[Landy Andy]

Regularly do three, four, sometimes five days without hook up. 2 old fashioned batteries, no lithium, no B2B, no solar. I don’t need a microwave, rarely use it at home. Gas hob, or bbq works ok for us.

 

[Vansflyer]

The guy that fitted it couldn't locate the fridge relay and thought it might be embedded in the PCB. He resolved it by disconnecting on of the wires to the PCB. A side effect is that the control panel inside the van no longer shows the engine battery level condition. It's all above my pay grade.

Removing the link on the CBE unit shouldn't stop the display showing the engine battery display, it should just stop the split charge relay kicking in. Info (badly translated) is in the CBE manual explaining it. We have 2 x 30A Victron B2B units and the fridge takes abut 10-15A off whatever the B2B is kicking out, with fans fitted to them I have never seen them throttle back apart from when battery is close to full charge. I would have a chat with the fitter about the lack of display.. 12A going into the batteries is about right on a 30A unit but not enough for us hence I doubled up to feed the Fogstar 280AH unit.

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[cyberyacht]

Frankly, I got better output to the batteries from the normal relay before I had the B2B fitted. Seems to have been a bit of a waste of money.

 

[dunnah01]

We did 103 days off-grid during the first lockdown. Partially shaded 360W solar and £10 worth of PWM controllers. Only got a bit of peril on a couple of occasions but just ran the engine for a little while - no drama.

 

[Nanniemate]

5 years in no lithium and never run out yet rarely use sites longest I've been out is just short of 4 weeks without ehu

I have
Run out of gas
Run out of water
Run out of clean undies

The water user error left the drain tap.open
Went to lidl and filled up on spring water cost a few £ and raised some eyebrows in the carpark.

Gas Funster came to the rescue i was on way to get refillable fitted

As for the undies I'm not telling you

 

[scotjimland]

5 years in no lithium and never run out yet rarely use sites longest I've been out is just short of 4 weeks without ehu

I have
Run out of gas
Run out of water
Run out of clean undies

'Time' is the only thing we don't want to run out of..

and you cant buy it..

 

[ManTheVan]

I havent got a clue how I am going to use all my electricity on our next holiday without Ebikes. I am doomed to failure in trying to get 200ah of lithium to get down to 50% never mind less

Oh no! What happened re the e-bikes that you love using so much?

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[suavecarve]

Oh no! What happened re the e-bikes that you love using so much?

Nothing. We havent used the motorbike for 3 years because we love the bikes that much.
We could probably get away with bike and E bikes in the garage but we are off to Austria which has some gradient attached, and we kind of like the flat cycling.
We will miss them as we will be staying at only 3 lakes for 5 weeks and 2 weeks travelling to and from and cycling round the lakes would be on our agenda, but to get to all the ski lifts, gorges, bergs, caves, luges and apple strudle in the mountains we will need the motorbike even to get to the bottom of the ski lifts.

We are also having to pay for campsites for 5 weeks. It will be new territory for us and it will be a different type of throunal

Our plan is to abuse the Karten Card and buy it for 5 weeks and see if we can do everything on there for 84 euros. We wanted to do this before I retire so we can ensure we have the finances versus our normal tight fisted approach of entertainment from an aire and finding free stuff

 

[Vansflyer]

Frankly, I got better output to the batteries from the normal relay before I had the B2B fitted. Seems to have been a bit of a waste of money.

Something is likely wrong then and given the lack of cab battery display I would be looking at what the fitter has done.Long cable runs with smaller cable reduces the current by quite a bit.

 

[VXman]

We have done 10 days off grid without starting the engine on ours. 350watts solar and 3 X 90AH AGM batteries.

We charge 2X electric bikes on it too and occasionally (partial charge) my electric motorbike.

 

[daventess]

We have done 10 days off grid without starting the engine on ours. 350watts solar and 3 X 90AH AGM batteries.

We charge 2X electric bikes on it too and occasionally (partial charge) my electric motorbike.

Out of curiosity - was that uk/abroad, summer?

 

[Jez1966]

We've just spent a 356 year in the US only 45 days/nights with EHU.

We have a 110Ah lead acid and 100W solar & a 300 12v invertor we used while driving to charge laptop. Phoners charged using USB.
Yes for full time living I can understand installing lithium etc, but I'm aways amazed how much people spend on lithium etc. to take "home appliances"
with them on a few weeks trips.

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1 year USA road trip - Late Gap Year

So 1 month into 12 month US road trip and what have we learnt. Preparation is key, plan for the worst hope for the best. You can track our misadventures @ https://www.polarsteps.com/JezAng/7186963-gap-year so this is strictly a geek prep...

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[Nanniemate]

We've just spent a 356 year in the US only 45 days/nights with EHU.

We have a 110Ah lead acid and 100W solar & a 300 12v invertor we used while driving to charge laptop. Phoners charged using USB.
Yes for full time living I can understand installing lithium etc, but I'm aways amazed how much people spend on lithium etc. to take "home appliances"
with them on a few weeks trips.

Polarsteps

Polarsteps is the personal travel log in your pocket.

www.polarsteps.com

1 year USA road trip - Late Gap Year

So 1 month into 12 month US road trip and what have we learnt. Preparation is key, plan for the worst hope for the best. You can track our misadventures @ https://www.polarsteps.com/JezAng/7186963-gap-year so this is strictly a geek prep...

www.motorhomefun.co.uk

And me so many people carry more kitchen gadgets than I own

 

[Fragle]

I don't get this modem trend of being frightened of going off grid without EHU.
I've been camping since I was 15 in one form or another. Tents, trailer tents caravans & Motorhomes never felt the need for EHU it's an unnecessary luxury.

Surely a Motorhome should be self sufficient that's the whole idea of them.

I quite agree.

We are in the middle of 60 nights away in Spain.

No need for a campsite as yet. Completely off grid with the use of the Aferiy power bank and 400w folding panels.
It has almost paid for itself on this trip alone on site saving
Runs air fryer and starlink charging scooter no problem
I don’t expect to go on a site in the next 30 either

 

[Mr porky]

We are in shade till next Thursday and my lithium is down to 40% after 4 days.
Hmm something is not right, sure enough there was so much muck/sand on my solar panels not forgetting bird poop that it took a few buckets of water and some energetic mopping.
All sorted now, hopefully that's fixed it.

 

[Jez1966]

I like the idea of never emptying the loo again (in the conventional way), but I don't know anyone who has one, so it might just be rubbish

Only seen demo one sat US RV show but, personally an incinerator toilet would be my 1st upgrade.
@ £4,000 and 36kgs, less £ than some have spent on Solar/Lithium and less weight than batteries and appliances
people are carrying. I can also very easily live without them & auto levelling.

A toilet is a necessity.
As post #54 above having spent a year travelling around the US we mostly walked cassette into rest areas,
spotted and turned a few time, or Portaloos we spot, often in the middle of nowhere.
An Cinderella Freedom Incineration Toilet would make things so much simpler.

Cinderella Freedom Incineration Toilet - Gas LPG

Cinderella Freedom Incineration Toilet burns urine and excrement at high temperature. Avoid high costs and regulations related to connection to the sewage.

lpgshop.co.uk

 

[VXman]

Out of curiosity - was that uk/abroad, summer?

The 10 days was in France in June - Le Man's 24 hour race.

My general use is from Feb to November in a mix of UK and Europe.

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[The Wino]

We are off-grid for weeks at a time when we go to France, and while some aires have a 6A EHU, we rarely bother using it.

Total 12v power is just two 90ah batteries and 180w of solar... fridge is 12v compressor.. so not using a lot of gas... that's it.

We don't take any 240v domestic appliances as we can't use them, and I don't see the point of spending £ks on a lithium set up just to do so.

I've still to be convinced it's a worthwhile investment ..

If you're off grid weeks at a time with no problem why would you upgrade?