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Topic: Electric Set-up

Jay Adler

05/9/2019 at 3:11pm
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Hi All,

My first post on here.

I have recently renovated an old 1988 Monza Vitesse. We've been out in it and all is well, I'm currently looking at improving the electrical set-up. We only have the ability to use EHU at the moment, which works fine, but i'd like to be less reliant on this.

I do have ambitions to install solar panels next summer, but in the meantime, I wanted to introduce a simple leisure battery that could be charged via EHU and become self sustainable for a day or two on the back of the charge.

I guess the main question is the best way to do this. I have seen a number of diagrams that all include charging from an alternator, which isn't an option. I simply want to be able to charge the leisure battery and use it (isolated).

Is it also possible to include the fridge to be powered directly through the battery? As that currently wires directly into the consumer unit.

I hope that makes sense, as I'd love to hear a couple of options.

Best,
Jay

Post last edited on 05/09/2019 15:34:43

Post last edited on 05/09/2019 15:39:05

Grandad Kenny

06/9/2019 at 9:56am
Location: Essex
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If you have EHU then you can fully charge a leisure battery using a standard battery charger, depending on what you use 12v for will depend on how long it will last before being recharged assuming you want to go off grid without EHU. A fridge cannot be run from 12v, it’s either electric or gas, the 12v part becomes active if connected to a running vehicle assuming it’s all been wired up correctly to do that. In reality there is nothing to stop you doing what you want to do, cooking will be on gas (12v ignition), fridge on gas (12v ignition)with lighting on 12v (and toilet flush?). Hope this helps

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Jax365

06/9/2019 at 10:41am
Location: south cheshire
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My caravan (Kip 1982) works in the same way. I charge a L. battery before I go away, with a smart charger. When away, without EHU, I use the fridge on gas, gas for cooking. I fitted a manual whale lever water pump, as the electric pumps use a lot of battery power. Only my lights are on the 12v system. And the motormover, so I have to make sure that I have enough charge in the l. battery to be able to get my caravan back on the drive when I get back home!

I charge mobile phone and kindle from the cars 12v ciggie sockets. I rarely use a tv, but I have one with a rechargeable battery which runs for four hours max, then also recharge that from the car.

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Colin21

06/9/2019 at 2:28pm
Location: East Herts
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Yes it is true that water pumps use quite a bit, but only when they are running which is rarely more than a minute or so except maybe when using the shower. We normally use on-site ones as they are usually much bigger than ours and you don't have to keep refilling the water container.

It is easy to fit to fit a battery charger to charge the battery while on EHU. Plenty available on ebay, or from a caravan breaker I would imagine.

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Best Regards,
Colin

Jay Adler

06/9/2019 at 3:03pm
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Thank you guys, and an inverter from the battery for the output, yes?

Pickled Onion

06/9/2019 at 3:34pm
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Using an inverter always sounds a good idea at first thought Jay, but converting 12 volts to mains draws heavy current from your battery for most things. Better to use EHU supply to run mains stuff and keep 12 volt circuit for other uses as mentioned.

Dave.

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Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day,
Teach a man to fish and you can get rid of him for a whole weekend.

Jay Adler

06/9/2019 at 4:06pm
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Thanks Pickled Onion, and sorry to sound silly. Without an inverter, how do you access the battery power?

In my head; the battery will be charged by a charger that is plugged into the mains or EHU, then you would use the inverter to access the power?

All we really need battery power for is lighting (low energy led fairy lights) and phone charging, so pretty minimal.

Example: EHU comes into the caravan mains, battery charger is plugged into a socket (charging the battery), inverter coming from the battery, providing power when not on EHU.

Sorry if i'm over-complicating this...

Colin21

06/9/2019 at 4:18pm
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The inverter is only necessary if you intend to run mains appliances from the battery. This is best avoided if at all possible, especially anything containing a heating element of any kind, as this will kill a leisure battery in no time at all! Inverters use power just to run themselves, even before you plug anything into them.

Mains equipment is best run from EHU if you need it, and just stick to 12 volt stuff off the battery. If you want to camp without EHU, my advice would be don't take any mains equipment with you. Phones etc can be charged from the car socket while you are driving. It's definitely not worth running an inverter to charge a phone, as that way you are converting 12 volts to mains, then back down again to low voltage for the phone. Very inefficient.

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Best Regards,
Colin

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