Blog 1.2: Power!

In the last missive I might have mentioned that there were one or two minor issues with the van (yes, I know it's a motorhome, and that's what I usually call it, but for the sake of convenience I'll refer to it as a van here. It is, after all, based on a van chassis).

Well, there was another issue which I didn't mention, which only came to light when we first went 'off grid' in it last month. And no, I won't be referring to being off grid as being 'wild camping'. It just ain't.

We were at a Camping Club Temporary Holiday Site giving the van a bit of a shakedown and checking everything worked as designed. And it didn't.

It was hot, and it was sunny, and I was expecting our roof-mounted solar panel to be pulling in a reasonable amount of electricity.

But no. Nowt. The leisure battery just sat there discharging every day, and needing the engine running to get a top up. It wasn't a disaster, but it's not ideal, obviously.

Now, I'd always intended to upgrade the somewhat basic 12v system fairly quickly, but this situation forced my hand somewhat.

The upshot is that the van is now booked in for a big dollop of extra solar, a much better lithium iron phosphate (LiFePo4) battery, a decent MTTP controller, a similarly good dc-dc charger, and a shunt (enabling bluetooth monitoring of the whole shebang on a trouserfone) to be installed at a place near Hereford next week.

Two nights in a farmyard will ensue while the install takes place (the glamour) followed by a night on a nearby basic campsite to check it all out.

Here's hoping.