Message Forums

Again Hi,That worked then...moving your post up from page 5. Little bit of history will always help anyone who can offer help you see. Wish I could find the first question...must have expired. Now, did you get any manuals at all with the van? IF not you can always google the van you have, and see if manuals are available for it. Alter your profile status to the vehicle you have...that will help, as folk will be interested if they have the same. They will be a good source of any techy things you need to know about. So make that alteration. Those people will have info a plenty up their sleeves to help you. Also, as I said I am no mechanic or an electrician. But would like to think others would help me if I need it. If you have not got manuals about any item , van or equipment, describe what you need to talk about. Tina, I cant imagine that nobody is out there to help with any issues you have...just keep asking, lovely folk will understand and respond...once again kid.....enjoy and good luck....fuel has gone down on mainland...so get over here, and at the moment....book a site on electric. Keep us updated plse.

the water pumps pull quite a bit of current, especially if having a shower. why not get a solar panel and not have to worry about it. I just fitted a 120w system to my dads new vehicle, he is well chuffied with it, keeps going in to see how much charge is being generated

Also to save on battery usage, change your lights to LED one, you will find that you can run about 5 LED's for the same power consumption as one normal one

A shower can consume quite a lot of 12 volt power because the water pump is running constantly which also uses more water when it's not needed so the solution I found was to swap the shower head for a trigger type which cuts off the 12 volt power instantly when the top trigger is pressed. This way you not only save water but the temperature also remains constant without having to fiddle about with the taps wasting water and battery power trying to resume the same flow and temperature again. Even if you decide to purchase a solar panel you still need to conserve your energy and this little gadget is perfect for doing just that. I bought one about 3 years ago and I can highly recommend it although they have reduced in price since then as mine cost me near on £25. It's well worth the investment in more ways than one.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/redirect.asp?redir=http://www.towsure.com/product/Reich_Charisma_Lever_Shower_Head

If you really need mains power for low wattage appliances when you are not on hookup you could consider an Inverter which converts the 12 volts dc from your battery to 230 volt ac mains. Lower power ones are not very expensive, look at Maplins.

You can fit a 2 pin plug to it that fits in the little two pin socket you mentioned for low power use. If you go for a bigger Inverter with more power output then you would need to connect it directly to your leisure battery with the clips supplied.

Phil.

also to save the battery don't leave any lights on that aren't needed as they do use a lot of power, we're slowly changing ours over to LED ones as they use a lot less power than the conventional bulbs fitted