New, need electrical help

[user 27148]

I saw this coming to a while ago, so I bought an E350 box van with a cutaway door. I now live full time in my vehicle.

I have good photos, let me know how to include them.

In my van, I have a dresser, table, my bicycles, personal things, shelving with my tools and other goodies, a kick-butt bed, restroom tools, another bike, and a generator 3400/4000 watts.

What I need to figure out is my electrical needs. So far I have a 130-watt laptop (8-10 hours), and my smartphone LG L6. I would like a small 12-volt fridge and a George Foreman grill... and some LED lights.

I want to install batteries, charger(s), inverter, and whatever else.

1. What is a good fridge around 2 cubic feet?

2. What are my electrical needs?

3. What information did I forget to provide?

4. What else do I need to think about?

 

[Trebor English]

Cooking electrically is very expensive using solar panels and batteries. The generator will be fine for the Foreman. For the computer and cell phone charger you want more hours of low power and quiet.

Get a Kill A Watt and measure the laptop. Measure while it charges its battery and while using it fully charged.

 

[B and C]

You can borrow a kill-o-watt from most libraries. I would measure for the duration you are using the laptop and then while it is charging only. This will give you a better understanding of its' needs. Better yet would be to get a car charger for it so there isn't the double conversion loss of inverting to 120v ac and then converting down to the 19v? dc.

Your big generator will run the grill for the 15-20 minutes you need to use it. Creating any kind of heat with batteries is possible but takes a larger battery bank.

I am just spitballing here but 200Ah worth of batteries and 2-300 watts of solar will keep the batteries happy while they cool your food and take care of your electronics but no grill. You may be able to get by with a little less but you have to figure on rainy and cloudy days.

 

[highdesertranger]

Welcome Ethan to the CRVL forums! To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

highdesertranger

 

[jacqueg]

1) I have an Alpicool and like it fine. There are more expensive/higher quality units out there, which will undoubtedly outlast my Alpicool. But it's great for right now. Mine cost me $250, where a comparable Engel or a Whynter would have cost closer to $1000.

2) I'd start here -  All electrical appliances are labeled with the watts, volts, and/or amps they require. You need to know two out of the three.

In general - keep it simple, and keep it flexible. If you're like everyone else, you WILL change your mind about what you want to carry and how to arrange it all.

 

[user 27148]

Thank you, everyone.

Is there a site that is recommended for designing a battery bank circuit complete with charger, generator, and so on?