Wild Camping - 3 pin plug

[LetsGo!]

Afternoon everyone, we mostly stay onsite and like the convenience of being able to hook up to electric and water etc. This year we have a few music festivals planed where there isn't any option to connect to an electric point etc.

We still want to use our tassimo machine, wife wants to use her hairdryer , lol! , and other bits and pieces where we need to have something to plug these into.

From the research that I've done, I understand the best option would be a portable power station.

Wanted to pull on the experience on this site to see if this is indeed the best option, or any other alternatives.

 

[MisterB]

Personally I would dig deep and invest in as large a lithium battery you can afford that will fit and a decent output inverter
It's going to cost around £1000 which is a lot of money but if sole use is just for the motorhome, you won't regret it as it makes 'off EHU/off site' motorhoming so much of a better experience.
You prob would rarely need to pay for EHU ever again unless you wanted to if you have solar and a B2B

 

[MichaelT]

We have 2kw inverter and 500ah of lithium with 400w fixed and 200w portable solar. We do not have a gas oven so rely on a remoska, air fryer and slow cooker. Yesterday I ran my fridge off inverter and yielded over 2 kW in solar.

So as MisterB says this is the best route. Whatever you get remember you have to charge it up somehow.

 

[Guigsy]

The other option is to upgrade the van's electrics. Put in a lithium battery, mount a couple of hundred watts of solar on the roof and change the mains and alternator chargers. Then you'll always have enough juice to run an inverter to power heavy devices like hair dryers and coffee machines. Depends on how much you're planning to off-grid, and how long your trips will be and how much you want to invest/tinker with the van.

 

[headlight]

Afternoon everyone, we mostly stay onsite and like the convenience of being able to hook up to electric and water etc. This year we have a few music festivals planed where there isn't any option to connect to an electric point etc.

We still want to use our tassimo machine, wife wants to use her hairdryer , lol! , and other bits and pieces where we need to have something to plug these into.

From the research that I've done, I understand the best option would be a portable power station.

Wanted to pull on the experience on this site to see if this is indeed the best option, or any other alternatives.

We have a 230AH LifePo4 leisure battery, 230 watts solar, 2,000 watt inverter and 60 amp B2B.
In the depths of UK winter, when there is basically no solar, we can do 4 nights stationary not on hook up before needing to recharge the battery.
LifePo4 has come down a lot in price to the point that it is now not much dearer than a good quality lead acid based leisure battery.
Our 2,000 watt pure sign wave inverter cost about £170 about a year ago and runs our 240v mains electric appliances, air fryer, panini maker TV etc fine.

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[Reallyretired]

As you mainly stay on sites and only occasionally need mains while not on hookup I would recommend the power station. You don't need any modification to your vehicle and you can use it elsewhere eg for power tools remote from a plug.
A proper solar and lithium set up is great if you need it but can work out expensive especially if you don't feel capable of doing it yourself.
Sorry for disagreeing with the others on here.

 

[Brains]

Just tow one of these.

 

[autorouter]

Providing power for a coffee machine and hairdryer is often one of the first upgrades to a motorhome.

To provide 230V mains power from 3-pin plugs, you need an inverter, which changes 12V battery low voltage DC power to mains high voltage 230V AC power. To power a Tassimo coffee machine or a hairdryer you will need an inverter with a power of 1500W or so.

The inverter needs power from batteries, and demands quite high amps current. A 1200W coffee machine will draw about 5A from the 230V mains output, but the 12V input from the battery will be at least 100A, probably more like 110A.

That is a heavy load for a lead-acid battery, and in the past the solution was to add several batteries in parallel. You would need at least two 100Ah lead-acid batteries in parallel, and it's recommended to have four.

However lithium batteries can cope with heavy amps demand much better than lead-acids, which is why most people fitting inverters change over to lithium. A 150Ah lithium battery would cope with a coffee machine or a hairdryer.

If you change over to lithium batteries, you will have to check that the existing lead-acid chargers are OK with lithium. Many of them are, but some are not. Check the mains charger, the solar charge controller and the arrangement for charging from the alternator while the engine is running.

You will almost certainly need to fit a B2B charger, also called a DC-DC charger, to charge the lithium battery from the alternator.

If you consider all that, then the option of just buying a power pack starts to look reasonable. A power pack is basically a battery, inverter and a couple of chargers all fitted into a convenient box. If you have other uses for the power pack - camping, power tools away from a supply etc, then that is another plus for a power pack.

However if you are only ever going to use the power pack in the motorhome, generally it's cheaper to swap the batteries to lithium and fit an inverter. And it is more convenient in the long run.

When sizing an inverter, you should go for one that is slightly bigger than the highest power item you will be using. Too small and it won't work at all, very large and you will waste power unnecessarily when it is idling.

And you need to switch it off when not actually using it. If it will be mounted in an inaccessible place, get one with a remote switching facility so you can mount the switch in an easy access place.

 

[Brains]

Providing power for a coffee machine and hairdryer is often one of the first upgrades to a motorhome.

To provide 230V mains power from 3-pin plugs, you need an inverter, which changes 12V battery low voltage DC power to mains high voltage 230V AC power. To power a Tassimo coffee machine or a hairdryer you will need an inverter with a power of 1500W or so.

The inverter needs power from batteries, and demands quite high amps current. A 1200W coffee machine will draw about 5A from the 230V mains output, but the 12V input from the battery will be at least 100A, probably more like 110A.

That is a heavy load for a lead-acid battery, and in the past the solution was to add several batteries in parallel. You would need at least two 100Ah lead-acid batteries in parallel, and it's recommended to have four.

However lithium batteries can cope with heavy amps demand much better than lead-acids, which is why most people fitting inverters change over to lithium. A 150Ah lithium battery would cope with a coffee machine or a hairdryer.

If you change over to lithium batteries, you will have to check that the existing lead-acid chargers are OK with lithium. Many of them are, but some are not. Check the mains charger, the solar charge controller and the arrangement for charging from the alternator while the engine is running.

You will almost certainly need to fit a B2B charger, also called a DC-DC charger, to charge the lithium battery from the alternator.

If you consider all that, then the option of just buying a power pack starts to look reasonable. A power pack is basically a battery, inverter and a couple of chargers all fitted into a convenient box. If you have other uses for the power pack - camping, power tools away from a supply etc, then that is another plus for a power pack.

However if you are only ever going to use the power pack in the motorhome, generally it's cheaper to swap the batteries to lithium and fit an inverter. And it is more convenient in the long run.

When sizing an inverter, you should go for one that is slightly bigger than the highest power item you will be using. Too small and it won't work at all, very large and you will waste power unnecessarily when it is idling.

And you need to switch it off when not actually using it. If it will be mounted in an inaccessible place, get one with a remote switching facility so you can mount the switch in an easy access place.

or the cheaper solution....

 

[Sewdhull]

For an inverter look for the highest efficiency, 90% eff will lose 200w on a 2kw appliance and 85% will lose 300w. On a 12v system over 15mins that's a difference of just over 2ah removed from the battery. Be nice to stick just to Wh...

Also it's a good idea to over size the inverter, for heat reasons and efficiency... an inverter is not most efficient at full chat.

If you can use a higher battery voltage than 12v, 3kW is 250A at 12v and losses in electronics and cables etc increase with the square of the current, so losses at 24v are 1/4 of those at 12v. Losses are seen as heat in devices ( and cables).

However if you put in plenty of battery capacity it matters less, there's no reason to use anything other than lithium nowadays, and even though companies are overcharging for batteries, lithium will give you longer life and more capacity. If you are likely to be emptying the battery regularly or taking high currents it makes sense to go for something better than you'll find on amazon or ebay.

I like the fogstar batteries, but you can buy the cells and bms and even a box if you fancy making a battery... it's not rocket science.

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[Bill-H]

If you just need it for a few festivals 2-3 nights? I'd think the simplest option would be a power bank with a reasonable capacity and solar input. You'll be able to put some charge back into it while away by plugging in a fold-up solar panel.
If you get one - try it out at home before you go, running hair drier and and coffee machine off it for a few days to see how it copes.
If you plan to do more off grid than that in the future, an inverter, lithium battery, B-to-B and solar panel install could be a better but more expensive option.
You could of course use a cafetiere and ditch the hair drier for the 2 nights off grid, that way you don't need either set up.

I've just removed the inverter from my motorhome as I've not plugged a 230v appliance into it for many years.

 

[RowleyBirkinQC]

We have 280ah lithium, 260w solar, 60amp B2B and no inverter or gas oven.
Whilst I quite fancy a 2000w inverter, my Domestic Manager is completely uninterested in an air fryer/coffee machine/induction hob etc onboard and has instructed me to Keep It Simple Stupid.

She’s no bloody fun.