Replace the gas with an extra lithium plus inverter?

[PeterCarole29]

I can’t see an all electric van surviving our British weather for extended periods without any hook-up.
Take this last summer we did have some lovely days but we did have a lot of grey ones and rain.
Not a problem abroad maybe as their sun sits higher in the sky and (seems) to be there more often.

An example we have solar which won’t put much in this time of year we have 2x12/12/30 victron b2bs that do put 60amps in and 920ah lithium we use air frier induction hobs we moved every couple of days never got lower than 50% and a hair drier with diesel heating on in the mornings

 

[AlanandMayya]

It's always a bit surprising and disappointing how the output of solar drops with the merest of haze in the sky, so unless you are in southern Spain, whilst solar will stretch your time off-grid, it doesn't perform energy miracles.

Exactly. Our setup works because we flee to the mountains around Murcia in Jan / Feb to get some sun. Anywhere else it would really struggle.

 

[AlanandMayya]

Makes good sense with having 2 homes something I would have considered having a rural off grid bungalow (ex olive farm 6ha) in Spain..bought 3kw panels/controller and 3kw inverter but change of circumstances (Brexit) means renovated bungalow but not done solar yet,now going to sell property (no doubt at a substantial loss) otherwise would have strongly considered your solution

Most people think I'm daft. But the figures do add up. Key thing is the panels are cheap. Big inverter and batteries are expensive so making them work at 2 houses plus the van pays off. Yes Brexit has complicated things. To put it politically correctly. We have got residence visas so will officially live in portugal and visit UK. As I have a British passport that's not hard. It means we are tax resident in Portugal so uk loses all our tax revenue to them. All part of the Brexit dividend.

 

[PlacidoD]

We have downsized to a small van, 6.7m A Class and put in a lot of electrical power.
I've fitted 460ah of Lithium, a 3000va inverter charger & 350 watts of solar.

We have a 800W electric kettle, air fryer & induction hob. The hob is only used for outside cooking in the summer.

Now had the van 6 months and what I can say it's nice having the powerful electrics but gas is king.
I don't get range anxiety with gas (2 x 14kg refillable) but I do with the batteries.

We are OffGrid at the moment arrived at 4:30pm yesterday anf by 9:30am this morning had used 95ah. Fridge on gas, heating on gas, gas hob, air fryer used for 20min. Kettle used a few times.

I could survive 5 to 6 nights being careful but where is the fun in that. But then I would need to get over 400ah back into the batteries, I have 120amp charger but still need to plug it in somewhere.
Solar doing sod all this time of year, if doing a long drive the B2B would put a fair bit back.

Even in Spain & Portugal in September & October the solar wasn't really coping, I will be adding another 200Watts that is the most I can get on the roof a total of 550 watts.

If you want to go fully electric I think you would need at least 1000ah of Lithium and more than 1000 watts of solar and you would still struggle in a UK winter.

"Range anxiety" - exactly the problem I have on one 100AH lead acid leisure battery and considering a circa 100Ah lithium as a realistic future upgrade on my "mature" MH (I acquired a lightly used Ecoflow Delta 2 a couple of weeks ago which can power my coffee machine, mini griddle & Ebike battery so inverter needs catered for atm). I mostly move sites every 2-3 days so the alternator can top me up to 100 AH if I have been without an EHU.

The real purpose of my contribution is to drill down on one aspect of the equation - the fridge/freezer. Like most people I occasionally lust after a shinny new van and when spec'ing up wonder about the relative merits of a compressor fridge versus a 3 way fridge. I would be interested in further discussion on how those two options fare regarding Offgrid use. How much extra lithium (and at what cost including larger B2B etc) do you need to keep a compressor fridge running?

It would be nice to have a clear answer to such a question for when/if I retire and consider buying a shinny new van!

P.S. I agree heating has to be either gas or diesel.

 

[Lenny HB]

The real purpose of my contribution is to drill down on one aspect of the equation - the fridge/freezer. Like most people I occasionally lust after a shinny new van and when spec'ing up wonder about the relative merits of a compressor fridge versus a 3 way fridge. I would be interested in further discussion on how those two options fare regarding Offgrid

Quite a few threads on it use the search facility..

I'm in the 3 way fridge camp last thing I want to be worrying about is warm beer when the batteries get low.

I fitted 460ah Lithium they actually come up at 485ah wish I'd fitted a lot more now.

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[oldiesontour]

"Range anxiety" - exactly the problem I have on one 100AH lead acid leisure battery and considering a circa 100Ah lithium as a realistic future upgrade on my "mature" MH (I acquired a lightly used Ecoflow Delta 2 a couple of weeks ago which can power my coffee machine, mini griddle & Ebike battery so inverter needs catered for atm). I mostly move sites every 2-3 days so the alternator can top me up to 100 AH if I have been without an EHU.

The real purpose of my contribution is to drill down on one aspect of the equation - the fridge/freezer. Like most people I occasionally lust after a shinny new van and when spec'ing up wonder about the relative merits of a compressor fridge versus a 3 way fridge. I would be interested in further discussion on how those two options fare regarding Offgrid use. How much extra lithium (and at what cost including larger B2B etc) do you need to keep a compressor fridge running?

It would be nice to have a clear answer to such a question for when/if I retire and consider buying a shinny new van!

P.S. I agree heating has to be either gas or diesel.

A compressor fridge power consumption depends on ambient temperatures, fortunately the hotter the day the longer it runs but hotter usually means sunnier !
I have a240v household fridge freezer including it's inverter it uses about 20 ah a day at the moment In summer around 40ah day or say 2amps per hour a 100w solar panel should give a comfortable 5ah in summer ,you should put 30 to 60ah back into your leisure battery when driving (depending on B2B chosen) EHU Charging should be about the same,from these figures taking into account your personal use Hook up Vs driving vs. non hook up,time of year and other power needed you can work out what to buy BUT for early spring late autumn and winter leave out the solar contribution.
Cost about 50per watt panels, the B2B mppt and mains charger and battery monitor vary massively by brand ,mine 50a B2B and 50a mppt ,100a mains and 500a monitor around
£320 but easy to spend double that.The same applies to Batteries if you build your own (very simple )mine 640ah with Bluetooth and heaters about £550 prebuilt upto double this.
So work out your winter needs size batteries accordingly and add a margin ,solar for the extra initial cost as much as you can get (for off season use) .The other major component is an inverter output dependant on your predicted use plus a margin 2000w is enough for most but 3000w isn't a great deal more initial cost .
Also worth remembering top of the range is designed to run 24/7 ..365 for years and does and offers lots of features the average motorhomer either does not need or does not understand.in general van use of the system is negligible in comparison to the domestic use the medium and high spec equipment is built to handle and again in general is sold on in a much shorter time