Now, for those who know ohms law, you might be able to guess to some extent.
Wattage is 35-65W
Anyone hazard a guess? Reckon it would go 12 hours and still enough power from a fully charged battery? 24 hours? 6 hours?
Guesses please.....
Battery Drain - Krypton Factor Style
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CovKid
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Battery Drain - Krypton Factor Style
More an experiment. You know those 12v mini fridges? The type that will just about hold two coke cans and an orange? I'm going to leave one plugged in and see how long it is before there isn't enough juice to start engine.
Now, for those who know ohms law, you might be able to guess to some extent.
Wattage is 35-65W
Anyone hazard a guess? Reckon it would go 12 hours and still enough power from a fully charged battery? 24 hours? 6 hours?
Guesses please.....
Now, for those who know ohms law, you might be able to guess to some extent.
Wattage is 35-65W
Anyone hazard a guess? Reckon it would go 12 hours and still enough power from a fully charged battery? 24 hours? 6 hours?
Guesses please.....
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Mocki
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how long would the battery last with the headlights left on?
as we dont know the capacity of the battery, its gonna be hard to say, but im thinking less than 10 hours, as the lower the voltage, the higher the drain.........
as we dont know the capacity of the battery, its gonna be hard to say, but im thinking less than 10 hours, as the lower the voltage, the higher the drain.........
Steve
tel / txt O7947-137911
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1989 2.1LpgWBX HiTop Leisuredrive Camper
1988 2.1 Auto Caravelle TS TinTop Camper
tel / txt O7947-137911
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1989 2.1LpgWBX HiTop Leisuredrive Camper
1988 2.1 Auto Caravelle TS TinTop Camper
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CovKid
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I'm trying this with a range of so-called cooling gadgets to see what works best/is least power hungy. The other thing I want to try is an ALDI cool bag (think they were about £14) that is silver lined, insulted, and has a small fan attached designed to plug into cigarette lighter - see how long that lasts.
Finally, when I built my buddy seat, I filled the hollow sides of the base with polystyrene chips so it could double as a simple cool box. I would imagine that with the addition of those refreezable plastic ice blocks, it should keep the interior of the base cool for at least a day. Its worked brilliantly when transporting frozen stuff back from the supermarket. It also works the other way, ie can keep food hot for quite a while.
To be honest I actually have little use for a fridge in the longer term but a unit that would simply keep things cooler than ambient would suffice, for those short day trips, ie picnics. Small fans should theoretically work fine on solar power.
As for the 12v fridge, I reckon 4-6 hours at most but we'll see
Almost every internal and external light is LED now. I was amazed at how much light one small white LED put out as a sidelight and consumes practically nothing compared to a tungsten bulb.
Finally, when I built my buddy seat, I filled the hollow sides of the base with polystyrene chips so it could double as a simple cool box. I would imagine that with the addition of those refreezable plastic ice blocks, it should keep the interior of the base cool for at least a day. Its worked brilliantly when transporting frozen stuff back from the supermarket. It also works the other way, ie can keep food hot for quite a while.
To be honest I actually have little use for a fridge in the longer term but a unit that would simply keep things cooler than ambient would suffice, for those short day trips, ie picnics. Small fans should theoretically work fine on solar power.
As for the 12v fridge, I reckon 4-6 hours at most but we'll see
Almost every internal and external light is LED now. I was amazed at how much light one small white LED put out as a sidelight and consumes practically nothing compared to a tungsten bulb.
CovKid wrote: Almost every internal and external light is LED now. I was amazed at how much light one small white LED put out as a sidelight and consumes practically nothing compared to a tungsten bulb.
I really need to convert my internals to LEDs. The strip light and courtesy light uses so much juice. At vanfest the courtesy light (nice warm glow) was left on most of the night due to getting up a lot to feed the baby - after 2 nights the battery was quite low. And thats with two leisures in parallel.
CovKid - i know you have done some great write ups on your separate LED experiences, but have you got a definitive guide?
Feel free to say "Do a search numb nuts"
Ringo
Now driving a big bad VW LT Florida.
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CovKid
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I wouldn't say that Ringo! I'm your laid-back 80/90 member
I always felt that there was a lot of reliance on leisure batteries and these days there are great alternatives to power-hungry bulbs.
In basic terms, LEDS need only a few volts rather than 12v so you have to put a resistor alngside the LED otherwise it would blow. I was considering a definitive guide but for starters, the flimsy plastic circuit on the dash is fairly unworkable and prone to poor connections so I'm trying to create a replacement 'hard' circuit board for that area as well as minor alterations to the dashboard to better accommodate LEDs plus additional switches but it will take time.
Most external bulbs (with the exception of headlights) have direct LED equivalents and you can either buy them off the shelf or in some cases, solder LEDS direct to older bulb casings (I did the latter cos I'm so tight). I think maybe start there and replace anything that saps power on the vans normal gear and look for other areas you can improve. External LEDs are great. My sidelights have a slight blue cast and are so much better than the old yellow bulbs that would drain a battery within hours. I definately wouldn't be using a strip light inside - they're not very efficient.
I'm fascinated by those LED torches in pound shops that require a few squeezes to generate several hours of light. I'd recommend those anyway, but I've been toying with ways to extend that principle. For instance, even the action of opening the sliding door could utilised to generate and store minor amounts of power in a similar way to the way those torches work. Its not beyond the realms of possibility to also generate enough power to run internal LEDS with even a tiny wind generator - consider those rotating roof vents you see in many vans - what a waste of energy when you think about it!
Certainly I don't use power from the main battery and I've deliberately avoided going down the leisure battery route, favouring an alternative way of lighting the interior. For those that want to run TVs, stereos etc, more radical thinking is required but is not an impossibility with some ingenious use of natural energy - just takes a bit of working out.
I'm sure some will view this as rather anal, but I'm trying to rewire mine to become far more self-contained and not dependant on battery chargers when things go wrong.
Essentially where theres movement or sun, you can generate power, and I always feel we're only scratching the surface in this respect.
Check this out for a really simple idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ5kX5Yw4eY&NR=1
I always felt that there was a lot of reliance on leisure batteries and these days there are great alternatives to power-hungry bulbs.
In basic terms, LEDS need only a few volts rather than 12v so you have to put a resistor alngside the LED otherwise it would blow. I was considering a definitive guide but for starters, the flimsy plastic circuit on the dash is fairly unworkable and prone to poor connections so I'm trying to create a replacement 'hard' circuit board for that area as well as minor alterations to the dashboard to better accommodate LEDs plus additional switches but it will take time.
Most external bulbs (with the exception of headlights) have direct LED equivalents and you can either buy them off the shelf or in some cases, solder LEDS direct to older bulb casings (I did the latter cos I'm so tight). I think maybe start there and replace anything that saps power on the vans normal gear and look for other areas you can improve. External LEDs are great. My sidelights have a slight blue cast and are so much better than the old yellow bulbs that would drain a battery within hours. I definately wouldn't be using a strip light inside - they're not very efficient.
I'm fascinated by those LED torches in pound shops that require a few squeezes to generate several hours of light. I'd recommend those anyway, but I've been toying with ways to extend that principle. For instance, even the action of opening the sliding door could utilised to generate and store minor amounts of power in a similar way to the way those torches work. Its not beyond the realms of possibility to also generate enough power to run internal LEDS with even a tiny wind generator - consider those rotating roof vents you see in many vans - what a waste of energy when you think about it!
Certainly I don't use power from the main battery and I've deliberately avoided going down the leisure battery route, favouring an alternative way of lighting the interior. For those that want to run TVs, stereos etc, more radical thinking is required but is not an impossibility with some ingenious use of natural energy - just takes a bit of working out.
I'm sure some will view this as rather anal, but I'm trying to rewire mine to become far more self-contained and not dependant on battery chargers when things go wrong.
Essentially where theres movement or sun, you can generate power, and I always feel we're only scratching the surface in this respect.
Check this out for a really simple idea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZ5kX5Yw4eY&NR=1