240V for everything!

[contravertial]

Just starting on a Boxer conversion

Thinking of going large on the leisure batteries ( lithium 300ah ? ) and inverter ( 3000W ? ) and maybe 300 Watts solar

Then running ALL consumers (lights, cooking, fridge, etc ) off 240 AC, do not need space or water heating.

Why is this a bad idea? thanks for any insights

 

[mark61]

I guess it depends on what you classify as cooking, and how long you camp up for.
Couple of tins of beans is one think, slow cooking a decent bolognese sauce for 3 or 4 hours another, and most important, how many cups of tea needed.
If I were going all electric I'd be looking at more ah's.

Anyway, far more knowledgeable people here who can comment with some authority.

 

[contravertial]

cooking : microwave and airfryer, the odd time an induction hob

yes think the batteries need to go to 2 x 200AH, thanks for that.. looking at a renogy system would go for 600W of solar and a 3000W inverter

this guy here used a 2000W inverter and no problem with off grid cooking for days on end :

funny enough the 2 batteries were overkill for him and 3 months later he changed the setup for lighter

 

[Duckato]

Main problem with mains lighting will be safety and integrity of the installation and reliability.
Domestic light fittings are large and awkward to use most aren’t designed for being rattled to death. Once upon a time I had intended to adapt some nice copper domestic fittings for 12v using gu10 adapters but they were so floppy they were intermittent during testing.

I do use domestic light switches constantly far cheaper and practical than 12v variants.

Cooking is a doable but realistically even if you fit a sensible amount of Solar e.g a minimum of say 1200w I.e three good value 400w domestic panels you will only see 10-15% of rated output in the winter. So to cook during the winter will require a spell of driving to recharge the batteries quite regularly.

Safe rule of thumb is to size your b2b between a third and half of the alternators output so to avoid driving for hours to put back in whatever you take out, I do hope you have a decent capacity alternator.

Mains fridges are very much the norm now, I have had two in permanent use in my two vans for 4 years without problem.
I also run a mains TV and a dual 230v AC/12v DC immersion heater for DHW.

 

[trevskoda]

Loosing so much power converting from 12v to 230v, 12v lights and usb 5v charge points are the way to go, gas to cook etc.
I do have a 230v fridge on a 600w smart inverter running 200ah batts and 200w solar.

 

[st3v3]

My 240V fridge uses something like 100Ah per day. So the fridge alone will see you struggling after 3 days. Cooking uses vastly more....

A 300W panel in ideal conditions won't provide for the fridge, never mind cooking.

Use gas.

 

[contravertial]

I've decided to put 450 watts of solar with a renogy dc-dc charger from the alternator, I dont intend to be in one spot more than a day or 2

will go for as much 12vdc as possible for efficiency

just came accross a Calorifier which brings hot water back into the equation and still no gas needed .. happy days



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