Do you need one or two leisure batteries To supply kitchen and usb connections Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
How big should the leisure battery be for 3 days camping trip. I know that's a how long is a piece of question but just want an idea.
If you're going off grid, you'll need a gas fridge otherwise you'll drain virtually any battery. Apart from the that, all you are powering is lights, sound and laptop so you don't really need a mahoosive battery. Add a solar panel and things get even better.
One generally is enough but it depends what you are wanting to power. I use a 110amp battery for my leisure system
A big one...or a small one. There isn't much room so most fit the biggest that will fit. You could work out your power use, but remember a 110ah battery is only actually useful for 1/2 those ah.
If you have a gas fridge and occasionally unhook the awning and go for a drive out for the day, you'll have plenty of power from a standard leisure battery even without hookup/solar
I agree with Norris, we used to do two weeks barely moving with no leisure battery when all we had was one light. The engine always started. 12V fridges are the no.1 cause of fancy electric systems, built in mains chargers, solar panels, posh leisure batteries...everything 12v really. We all like more lights, charge phones and that kind of thing these days and a simple leisure battery without all the gubbins would be fine...unless you have the killer fridge...or an eber/propex type heater, or a sub on your music system, 12v TV...
I have twins girl 11 years old.need the usb for laptops big time so can get my head showered no other way lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
This ^^^ I used mine `off grid` for 2 years travelling with only the 85Ah main battery powering a 8w strip light and a radio/cassette player - a week parked up wasn`t an issue . Then things got complicated and i fitted a Propex , compressor fridge etc so needed a leisure battery , these people came highly recommended :- https://www.batterymegastore.co.uk/product-category/leisure-batteries/ Look for a 90-110 Ah leisure battery , which size you chose depends on where you plan to mount it . Then you`ll need at the very least a split charger , getting adventurous you`ll be looking at a basic solar set up and/or mains hookup - it`s a slippery slope - all to charge a laptop or two
Agree, though as soon as we are allowed to camp this year we will be off for a trip and are planning on "working from home from campsite" in the mornings to make our holidays days stretch further. Dreaming of doing my standard work with a killer view and a lovely morning brew!
As the space for the battery is limited, make sure you measure up before you buy. For instance Eddy at Victoria farm sold batteries, but his 110AH version was too big to fit in a bus, I can remember a Techenders where somebody bought one, then had to take it back the next morning. The other problem is that the 110AH batteries that fit in the space available will be compromised in life expectancy by having thinner plates, and less space for the stuff that falls off the plates over time below the plates. For instance I have a (now dead) 120AH AGM battery sold by MasterVolt. It was almost twice as heavy and twice as big as the smallest 110AH wet cell battery. I wish there was space to fit it in the bus, but it would have meant having the nearside rear light cluster on a bulge in the bodywork... The real answer here will be when lithium battery packs get cheaper (if they ever do before becoming really expensive as car makers suck up the entire Earth's supply of batteries) .. It was @zedders who pointed out with the correct lithium battery chemistry and the correct BMS, just connecting a lithium battery in parallel with the starter battery actually works to store or release masses of energy , before the BMS disconnects the lithium battery either charging or discharging. But the cost will be hundreds of pounds at todays prices. Until then its fitting 200 watt solar panels and compressor fridges.. And still having the battery caned by charging a laptop. A 120AH battery stores about 1KWH from 100% to 0% or maybe 0.35KWH from 100% to 65% for maximum life. Leave the laptop at home unless its a modern one with a 10 hour battery life off a 40WH battery ! Dont just use some old laptop - they generally use more power. Like my 10 year old Acer Aspire 8943G (18" screen , Intel i7) laptop lasted about 2 hours when new on a 100WH battery and delivers about 20% of the performance of this HP Envy X360-15 laptop here (15" screen, AMD Ryzen 4500) that manages 6 hours on a 40 WH battery. Charging a laptop battery might take between 0.1 and 0.2KWH to charge a 50 to 100WH battery through an inverter, with losses in an inverter and the battery charger. As your 110AH battery only has about twice that capacity of useful energy, you wont get much life for your fridge and lights. If you run that laptop all the time it will kill your battery - my 65AH leisure battery suffers after a few hours with a corporate Dell laptop that comes with a 200 watt mains adapter... And solar panels dont deliver max power at 50 degrees latitude on a flat roof - you get maybe 8A out of a theoretical 11A from a pair of 100 watt good quality panels, for some fraction of the day, lessened by the high top camper next to you and the tree behind you. .
@mikedjames when I was looking at high power laptops they don't even bother trying to put a big battery in them because if you think you'll run it on a battery the joke is on you. The battery is handy for mains power failure and... er ,that's about it. It's one of the reasons I went for a desktop type in the end, if I need mains anyway, what's the point?
