Hello from Peiro! A New Vandweller with a question right off the bat!

[Peiro]

Hello All! Boy am I excited to find this forum! I am a 31 year old male who has been living in my van for 6 months. I scored a custom 95 chevy G20 with 74,000 miles on it for 3 grand! Its a beautiful van with a gorgeous interior and i love it... my 2 friends and i spent all winter travelling out west in it and had a blast....i have since dropped them off and now work 6 days a week in the mountains of north carolina....i thought for a while that van life would be too painful and that i would sell the van after our road trip....i am now sitting here realizing that dropping 400 bucks a month on a room for rent when i already have a room in my van is crazy! so im gonna do it, im gonna be a full time van dweller lol... im new to this and these are my biggest problems: 1) staying clean, which the tips on here have helped tremendously and i bought a solar shower bag today. 2) it's about to start getting hot so i bought a fan today...this is my big question...i want to be able to run a fan all night and charge my cell phone, i saw that i can get a 5W solar car battery charger for like 50 bucks....will it be enough power to keep my fan going all night? and how well do those cheaper trickle chargers work? i work at a restaurant and get free food and stuff so im not looking to deck out my van with a fridge or anything...so will the cheaper 5W charger do the trick for small things like running a fan and such? your answers will be greatly appreciated....thanks all and i hope to get to know u more! take care, peiro

 

[blkjak]

<span style="font-size: x-small;"><strong>welcome .... blkjak</strong></span>

 

[Wild_E]

Hello and welcome;<br><br>the solar panel will only work in the daytime, you will need to connect it to the batter, you can also connect the 12v computer fans. They are the fans in the computer box, watch for free curb deals. I have one running daily using only a small 1.3or 1.5w panel do not remember. On strong sun days you can put two fans on and they run just fine.&nbsp;<br><br>So look for those to come on sale, they are about $18+ normally though drop right down to $10.<br><br>If you can hook up to the 110 v shore power (regular house type power) then get a trickle charger with a built in auto shut off feature. This will save it from overcharging you batteries and thus extending the time they are good.&nbsp;<br>good luck

 

[James AKA Lynx]

Hmm, That is a hard call. Depends on how much sun the solar panels get directly. It would be best to get rechargeable batteries for the fan. I have seen solar panel chargers for cell phone.<br><br>You van may be able to charge your battery at idle. You could then run the engine for 1 hr or so and recharge everything. Worth checking out. Some do not.<br><br>James AKA Lynx

 

[Peiro]

Thanks for welcoming me all!<br><br>Wild - E: I already bought a small twin blade window fan from walmart... i think its around 40 watts....by my calculations my battery should easily be able to handle the fan running all night...or is that stupid? should i still buy the 5W solar charger to charge my battery during the day while im at work? sorry i know these are basic questions but i am new to all of this....

 

[James AKA Lynx]

Watts is Voltage X Amp's.<br><br>Your battery is rated in Amp Hours. The amps per hour of your fan will determine how long your battery last and how many usable amp-hours your battery has. You should be OK with your battery for a few days if kept low speed.

 

[Peiro]

thanks lynx!

 

[Wild_E]

personally, I would not run it off the engine start battery. Think about installing a secondary battery and there is lots of info here on the subject.&nbsp;

 

[caseyc]

You only want to power a fan and a phone?&nbsp; If so, that's nothing!&nbsp; Just plug in a&nbsp;12 volt adapter (with multiple outlets) into your van's cigarette lighter which will easily power the 2 small items you mentioned.&nbsp; For myself, I have a bunch of small electronics, plus large appliances including a fridge. Hence I have a Group 27 AGM second auxillary battery installed which is attached to a 2,000 watt inverter, plus solar panels to boot.&nbsp; That would be overkill to only power a fan and phone.<br><br>For portable solar chargers, I also have these items:<br><br>Joos Orange solar charger<br><a href="http://www.rei.com/product/837625/j...ferralID=e439bd9d-acf6-11e2-9389-001b2166c62d" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.rei.com/product/837625/j...ferralID=e439bd9d-acf6-11e2-9389-001b2166c62d</a><br><br>SolarMonkey solar charger<br><a href="http://www.rei.com/product/843129/powertraveller-solarmonkey-adventurer-solar-charger" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">http://www.rei.com/product/843129/powertraveller-solarmonkey-adventurer-solar-charger</a><br><br>

 

[WheelEstate USA]

You might find that your needs increase the longer you live the lifestyle as a vandweller. A 5w panel is little more than a "maintenance" unit to keep a battery up to charge. Bringing one back up from discharged condition will require more power. You sure don't want your battery to be down too far to start your rig one fine day, so conside a second one, orbetter yet, 2 golf cart batteries if you have room.<br><br>Look around, deals can be found for solar panels. I just bought 3 at a swap meet for 60 bucks...be sure to test them with a meter before buying used ones.<br>Harbor Freight has inexpensive charge controllers, or score one off eBay. If you think you might need one, there are some small inverters that don't cost much. They won't run appliances, but will handle lots of small stuff.<br><br>I'm not very tech savvy, but there are plenty of folks here who can help you understand all the numbers so you can set up a sweet little system for not much money.<br>Mounting panels on top of a van is very basic, but don't scrimp on wire size.<br><br>Good luck and have fun.