Yeah, the power draw rabbit hole is real. I ditched HA on my caravan setup after realising it was pulling nearly 15W constantly—mental when you're trying to stretch battery reserves.
What actually...
Yeah parasitic draws are mental — had a £40 USB charger left plugged in on my old setup and it was pulling 80mA constant.
The battery replacement thing's a real conversation though. I've got two Victron LiFePO4 stacks in my van and they're not cheap upfront, but at 10p/kWh grid rates now?
Induction's doable but honestly? You'll need meaty solar to keep up with daily cooking cycles. I run a 5kW pure sine inverter in my setup, paired with 15kWh lithium.
Pair of Drifts here too, mounted in the motorhome. Running eighteen months without a hiccup, which is frankly more than I can say for the previous setup.
Main thing that's sold me is the BMS...
The caravan angle's definitely underrated. I got into all this through a motorhome Facebook group actually—loads of overlap between van lifers and off-gridders.
Yep, inrush is brutal. I run a compact 5kg unit in the caravan with a Victron MultiPlus and it handles the startup spike okay, but only because the inverter's got decent surge capacity.
in Q&A
10 months ago
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Yeah, this would be proper useful. Late-night scrolling in the van when the sun's down and I'm monitoring the battery bank — white background just nukes your night vision.
Depends massively on ambient temps and how often you're opening it. My 200Ah Fogstar setup runs a 12V Dometic, and I'm seeing roughly 30-40A draw when the compressor kicks in, but it cycles...
in Q&A
1 year ago
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Yeah, winter's brutal for output up north. I've got panels on my caravan and the ice buildup is mental some mornings.
Few things that actually work:
Angled panels help massively — snow slides off...
Reckon it depends on your actual use case. I'm running both in my setup—LiFePO4 in the static caravan (daily cycling, proper inverter load), AGM as backup in the motorhome.
LiFePO4 wins if you're...
Running Fogstar on my static caravan and they're punchy little things — definitely underrated. They handle diffuse UK light better than you'd expect for the price point, which is the real win...
Mate, been pulling cells from old laptop batteries for years now. Most recycling centres won't take them, so you can often grab bags of dead laptops for next to nothing.
@OldSailor — what are your actual loads? That's the missing piece here.
I'm running a static caravan setup with similar solar, and it makes a massive difference whether you're talking fridge,...
in Q&A
1 year ago
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Removable's the way to go here. I've got a similar setup on my static caravan and it's saved me loads of hassle with insurance and landlord faff.
Skip the all-in-one "budget" kits...
