Julie and I bought a Swift Escape 674 in 2020 and have been very happy with it. Still being novices after 4 years we are still finding things out about it that we previously didn’t know (including additional hidden sockets)!
The thing I really struggle with is understanding what we really need for off-gridding for days at a time, so here’s the (known) spec and our experiences:
We have a fully sealed, long life 80 amp-hour leisure battery and a 100 watt roof mounted solar panel.
When we travel, we watch a couple of hours TV a night and obviously use the lights. Heating, hot water, fridge and cooking are all gas.
Last year, April to June, we toured Scotland, the Western Isles and Orkney and only had a total of two days without sun (yes I know, I’m sure it was Scotland!) As we went round we became braver and braver testing the capability of no electric supply. Finally, we comfortably managed 10 consecutive days without ehu BUT each day was a different location, so driving in between each stop. The battery never went below 85%.
This year, we did France/Spain from mid-April to end of June and did quite a few stops for up to three days.
Most times, the lowest our battery dropped to was 75% BUT after a dust storm covered the ‘van’ and I unsuccessfully tried to clean the solar panel at a car wash that didn’t have a gantry, we drove to our next stop and without ehu the battery went down to 65% in two days. Luckily, ehu was available and I then managed to clean the solar panel properly by hanging out the cab sunroof with an extended mop and bucket![Astonished face :astonished: 😲](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f632.png)
After that, it went back to three days in one place without ehu equating to the leisure battery dropping to approximately between 85% & 75%. (We have a Sargent controller that indicates that the solar charging switches automatically between both the vehicle and the leisure battery as required)
That’s the background, now here are my questions:
The battery obviously charges while we are driving, but using what system? I am confused by the terms ‘B2B’ and ‘MPPT’ for instance. What is ours likely to be and is there a more efficient way of doing it?
What is the lowest I should allow the battery to decrease to?
What do I need to change/add if we want to stop off grid for up to a week?
Would a ‘plug-in’ solar panel for back up be worth carrying?
It is in my mind to replace the battery with a lithium when the time comes, but at the moment there isn’t really anything wrong with the original.
Thank you in advance for all advice, I have been reading up on this matter for a long time and there is sooooo much information out there it is doing my head in![Exploding head :exploding_head: 🤯](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f92f.png)
The thing I really struggle with is understanding what we really need for off-gridding for days at a time, so here’s the (known) spec and our experiences:
We have a fully sealed, long life 80 amp-hour leisure battery and a 100 watt roof mounted solar panel.
When we travel, we watch a couple of hours TV a night and obviously use the lights. Heating, hot water, fridge and cooking are all gas.
Last year, April to June, we toured Scotland, the Western Isles and Orkney and only had a total of two days without sun (yes I know, I’m sure it was Scotland!) As we went round we became braver and braver testing the capability of no electric supply. Finally, we comfortably managed 10 consecutive days without ehu BUT each day was a different location, so driving in between each stop. The battery never went below 85%.
This year, we did France/Spain from mid-April to end of June and did quite a few stops for up to three days.
Most times, the lowest our battery dropped to was 75% BUT after a dust storm covered the ‘van’ and I unsuccessfully tried to clean the solar panel at a car wash that didn’t have a gantry, we drove to our next stop and without ehu the battery went down to 65% in two days. Luckily, ehu was available and I then managed to clean the solar panel properly by hanging out the cab sunroof with an extended mop and bucket
![Astonished face :astonished: 😲](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f632.png)
After that, it went back to three days in one place without ehu equating to the leisure battery dropping to approximately between 85% & 75%. (We have a Sargent controller that indicates that the solar charging switches automatically between both the vehicle and the leisure battery as required)
That’s the background, now here are my questions:
The battery obviously charges while we are driving, but using what system? I am confused by the terms ‘B2B’ and ‘MPPT’ for instance. What is ours likely to be and is there a more efficient way of doing it?
What is the lowest I should allow the battery to decrease to?
What do I need to change/add if we want to stop off grid for up to a week?
Would a ‘plug-in’ solar panel for back up be worth carrying?
It is in my mind to replace the battery with a lithium when the time comes, but at the moment there isn’t really anything wrong with the original.
Thank you in advance for all advice, I have been reading up on this matter for a long time and there is sooooo much information out there it is doing my head in
![Exploding head :exploding_head: 🤯](https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f92f.png)