Battery saving when no EHU

[Gazuk]

So, in our first year of motorhome ownership, and in a quest to give everthing a good test, we're booked to take our MH to the Weyfest festival in Surrey without EHU (ok, this wasn't our choice, but there were no EHU left).

We are there from Friday to Monday, so in a quest to get our single Gel battery to last as long as possible, does anyone have any advice, and in a worse case scenario, what problems will we have when the Hab battery dies? My only concern would be the fridge/freezer, which although will work off our 2 11kg LPG bottles, it must need some electriciry for lght and controls. But at the end of the day, if the Hab battery completely dies we'll just be left with a luxury fiberglass (expensive) tent, so will still be in a better position them most at the festival

We do have 2 camping gas burners that run off those butane cannisters, that we always take with us for outdoor cooking so coffee and tea is covered

Also, will two full 11kg LPG bottles be enough to run a fridge to 4 days?

Or, should we just got get a second battery installed?

We've got a Carthago C Tourer 2018

 

[Tombola]

Have you any solar,
How much battery capacity do you have
do you watch a lot of telly, use leccy for anything else. just cut it right down.

 

[Ingwe]

No solar panels? If you have solar and assuming the current weather continues, this should be enough to keep you leisure battery topped up.
If no solar, then judicious use of lights and tv watching should see you ok over the period. The lighting in the fridge uses very little current and only comes on when the fridge door is open. Similarly, the controls use only a little current.
Two 11kg gas bottles is hugely more than adequate for running the fridge for four days (assuming they’re full when you start).

Our one 14kg gas bottle used for the fridge, cooking and warm water (for washing and washing up) no heating, in the summer, lasts us about 15 days.

 

[Jimbohorlicks]

If you just run a fridge and use the hob for moderate cooking and kettle boiling you will use no more that 1 litre of gas per day,add in hot showers/ water and your up to 2 litres per day approx .Your 2 X 11 kgs hold approx 44 litres so enough for at least 21 days at worst case.
If you have solar that should be enough to keep your battery topped up each day after a few hrs TV and usual lights etc
Just enjoy your 4 days off grid ,I think you will find you have enough power .but for longer periods invest in an additional battery and/ or more solar if you have space.

 

[Bobby-gg]

To help, we've just done 5 day's off grid at a steam rally, fridge on gas once at the rally and cooked maybe two night using the hob and the oven.

Maybe used 1/4 of one of my 6kg cylinders of gas

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[Podney]

You’ve got tons of gas! Just turn the telly off,it’s mostly crap anyway.

 

[Richard n Ann]

Also, will two full 11kg LPG bottles be enough to run a fridge to 4 days?

Our two 6kg bottles last 4 weeks in Benidorm running the fridge and occasional cooking

 

[Swifter]

Get some cheap led stick on battery lights and a portable solar panel

 

[Stealaway]

Read a book with a bottle of wine

 

[Richard n Ann]

So, in our first year of motorhome ownership, and in a quest to give everthing a good test, we're booked to take our MH to the Weyfest festival in Surrey without EHU (ok, this wasn't our choice, but there were no EHU left).

We are there from Friday to Monday, so in a quest to get our single Gel battery to last as long as possible, does anyone have any advice, and in a worse case scenario, what problems will we have when the Hab battery dies? My only concern would be the fridge/freezer, which although will work off our 2 11kg LPG bottles, it must need some electriciry for lght and controls. But at the end of the day, if the Hab battery completely dies we'll just be left with a luxury fiberglass (expensive) tent, so will still be in a better position them most at the festival

We do have 2 camping gas burners that run off those butane cannisters, that we always take with us for outdoor cooking so coffee and tea is covered

Also, will two full 11kg LPG bottles be enough to run a fridge to 4 days?

Or, should we just got get a second battery installed?

We've got a Carthago C Tourer 2018

You should have plenty of power for a few days if the battery is in good condition.
An 80ah gel battery has 64ah useable so that means it will supply 1amp continuously for 64hrs before it's down to 20%

I'd fit a battery monitor if I were you, I love our NASA BM1.

If you can't stretch to £100 then these clamp meters are very handy, just clip it over the battery positive and you know what you are using...

UNI-T UT210E DIGITAL CLAMP METER 100Amp 600V AC DC Multimeter True RMS Compact | eBay

Model: UT210E. 1 x UNI-T UT210E. Jaw capacity: 17mm. Compact and easy to carry and use. DC current (A): 2A / 20A / 100A ± (2% + 3). AC Current (A): 2A / 20A / 100A ± (2.5% + 5). Auto Range and Auto Power Off.

www.ebay.co.uk

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[Just smiffy]

If you have room for another battery then it would be so easy to fit and that will double your bank…

But seeing you’ll be at a festival you won’t be in the van that much and you will definitely have enough gas just on one bottle and in this weather your battery will be fine… (if it’s in good order)..

 

[Gazuk]

Thanks for the replies.

No Solar, and the single battery is a Exide Gel. Don't know anything else about the battery as our MH is in storage at the moment.

Hopefully won't see the need to watch much tv at a music festival. Will be taking some kind of external power pack for phones, so they should be ok and we can use their tourches if needed.

Sounds like we will be fine for gas as we filled up before our last 3 day outing.

 

[Bobby-gg]

Thanks for the replies.

No Solar, and the single battery is a Exide Gel. Don't know anything else about the battery as our MH is in storage at the moment.

Hopefully won't see the need to watch much tv at a music festival. Will be taking some kind of external power pack for phones, so they should be ok and we can use their tourches if needed.

Sounds like we will be fine for gas as we filled up before our last 3 day outing.

Out of interest, which music festival, we've only got one more for the year left!

 

[Gazuk]

Out of interest, which music festival, we've only got one more for the year left!

Weyfest in Surrey (near Farnham)

One for older festival goer:

del Amitri
The Christians
Billy Ocean
Scouting for Girls
10CC

 

[Bobby-gg]

Weyfest in Surrey (near Farnham)

One for older festival goer:

del Amitri
The Christians
Billy Ocean
Scouting for Girls
10CC

Nice, we saw del Amitri at Northern Kin back in April and they were great, saw Billy Ocean at carfest a few years back and was rather disappointed

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[nicholsong]

You will definitely be OK for gas - we have just been away for 2 1/2 weeks in which fridge was on gas, a shower a day for 2 of us and some cooking(coffees and 3-4 meals). Gas consumption was under 1 Lt a day.

Battery should last with daylight in Aug.

If you will use MH like this frequently then a second battery and solar panel would be advisable. Another valuable extra is a Battery-to-battery charger - silly name as what it does is give max charge to leisure batteries from alternator when driving unlike normal charging system.

With those suggestions above you will not have to worry for a 4 day stop even in spring/autumn. Winter might need more, for heating.

 

[Gazuk]

So, all went well and absolutely no issues. Used a fraction of one gas bottle and had well over half the leisure battery left,

Had the 12v system off most of the days as we were rarely at the MH. Just lights in the evenng, and a schoolboy error when we fired up the hot water and hadn't noticed it was trying to run 2KW heating off the electric and not gas ! Noticed it after 15 minutes and 1 bar disappearing of the battery monitor. Changed the heater to defalt to gas and all good.

As for phone,s and other USB charging stuff, I purchased something I've been meaning to get for a while, which is a personal power pack. I got an XP-10 from Antigravity Batteries, which along with charging phones, laptops etc will also jump start motor vehicles upto 7 litre diesels! Mainly wanted one for my motorcycle trips, but very handy to have in the motorhome.

As fof the festival:

del Amitri - good
The Christians - ok
Billy Ocean - boring
Scouting for Girls - very good
10CC - very very good
leatherrat - lot of fun

But all opinions are personal, and speaking to a fellow motorhomer this morning, he thought Billy Ocean was the best and 10cc a dissapointment.

 

[Vansflyer]

Glad you survived the weekend on ltd power.
We also have a C-Tourer and have been aware of this for a while...
It is worth noting that leaving the Panel on (the one above the door) and the "media" turned on increases power consumption quite a lot... even with everything turned off.
I left our van in a hurry the other day and forgot to turn the panel off, these two screen grabs show the difference in how much longer the solar had to be on for.
The regular parasite drain is mainly the van alarm and tracker.
Just be aware if you need to save power in the future that turning the panel off really does help. Tbh with 300w solar, a good controller and two x 85ah batteries we rarely hook up now.

 

[Swifter]

You won’t have been powering a 2kw heater from your leisure battery . That’s only when you are on EHU

 

[cmcardle75]

Had the 12v system off most of the days as we were rarely at the MH. Just lights in the evenng, and a schoolboy error when we fired up the hot water and hadn't noticed it was trying to run 2KW heating off the electric and not gas ! Noticed it after 15 minutes and 1 bar disappearing of the battery monitor. Changed the heater to defalt to gas and all good.

Don't worry, the electric heating runs only off mains. Turning it on had no effect whatsover, the bar drop was a co-incidence.

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[poppycamper]

If worst comes to worst and you do run out of battery... and you worried about your fridge, it will not use very much if on gas , as you say just for control circuit and you have nothing else on you and you careful you could swap to van battery (assuming you have that facility) for remaining time.
Monitor van battery so you don't take to much out of it, although not really a worry if you also carry a jump start battery pack.
Njoy festival.

 

[Ingwe]

You won’t have been powering a 2kw heater from your leisure battery . That’s only when you are on EHU

What he said.