Newbie here. I have a VW T5 and I’m wanting to buy a high performance leisure battery. Currently I have a Lion battery, it’s four years old. I trickle charge it over winter. I use the van for trips mostly between March to October. I find that without EHU it lasts about five days before I notice the ice box in the fridge isn’t iced up. Should I turn the fridge dial to say 3? Is there a brand of battery that is amazingly high powered or is it more about using the van regularly. I have a drive in the van at least once a week between trips. Any advice?
Hi Dawn & welcome.
5 days of running a fridge, and presumably other things, is pretty good going for a leisure battery without EHU. If you want to go longer than that I would drive it more frequently, or if you have room fit a second battery alongside the existing one to double the capacity.
Another alternative would be to fit a solar panel to replace some of the charge lost from your existing battery.
Yes, I also suggest that you should try and fit a solar panel. Nasa Marine are doing a pretty good one and is flexible. Or why not try a wind generator :)https://www.nasamarine.com/. That is the manufacturer site but you can get it cheaper on other websites. Just a quick search on google shopping and I found the same solar panel on this site: . Hope this help!https://www.foxschandlery.com/nasa-semi-flexible-solar-panels-10w
A 10w will only produce that power in perfect conditions, which we have difficulty getting at all in the UK. At most it will be 75% efficient but more likely 50%. I suspect that the fridge is pulling more than that per day.
Any panel less than 50w is a waste of money in this situation.
And to add, stick-on panels are less efficient than solid panels with an air gap below. As the temperature of the panel increases the power production reduces.