Electric Picnic - Power Usage

Robertr

Hi Guys, Have a camper rented for electric picnic later this summer. Have not used a camper before so forgive my stupid questions but was wondering whats the story with electricity. How long can you expect a battery to last? Can it be charged up with the engine?

Alkers

How long is a piece of string? If it's just for lights, charging phones and the water pump it should easily last the weekend but you should still be conscious not to waste it. Fridge should be ran from gas. You can charge the battery from the engine but that means annoying all your neighbours with noise and pollution. If you run down the battery, the van will still start as there is a seperate battery to start the engine

Martin_D

one big annoyance is people running their engine for an hour at a time to recharge - noise and fumes annoy neighbours - a short 10 min run might be more considerate. only a few do it but those that do seem to have hard necks and care less about others.

How big is the battery, how big is the load, for how long...

Alternators can charge batteries, they often don't.
They are usually only setup to maintain running loads and convince you they are doing something.

Most people running their 100hp+ engine for an hour manage to extract 150Wh across feeble little lighting relays and raise the voltage enough to reassure themselves it's a job well done.

Del2005

Martin_D wrote: »

one big annoyance is people running their engine for an hour at a time to recharge - noise and fumes annoy neighbours - a short 10 min run might be more considerate. only a few do it but those that do seem to have hard necks and care less about others.

A 10 minute run would kill the van battery if done too often. A diesel needs about 15 minutes just to recovery the starting effort to get a charge it'll be longer.

Do they not provide hook ups at EP?

Alkers

Del2005 wrote:

Do they not provide hook ups at EP?

No hook ups, its just a field with I'm guessing a few hundred caravans & campers and a few portaloos, a central roadway, some bins and some lighting.

Martin_D

Del2005 wrote: »

A 10 minute run would kill the van battery if done too often. A diesel needs about 15 minutes just to recovery the starting effort to get a charge it'll be longer.

Do they not provide hook ups at EP?

You pay near $100 for the facility of a field with one roadway, a few (too few) portaloos, one tap for water and a couple of tanks for Black waste (not too nice by Sunday but it had improved last year on previous years) - no hook up.

I doubt that the engine runners know that a run of >15 mins is required - the few that do it tend to be oblivious to the time and their neighbours. But hey! better than the conditions in most of the tented areas any day.

Del2005

Del2005 wrote: »

Do they not provide hook ups at EP?

That depends on how familiar you are with lighting towers and willing to sleep beside them.

It takes 60hours to charge a battery from 50% DOD. Although you'll get to 80% after 6 hours usually. If you haven't upgraded that circuit expect 15A to the service battery and a fridge guzzling 10A of that. This would be better than most I see.

Alkers

Martin_D wrote:

You pay near $100 for the facility of a field with one roadway, a few (too few) portaloos, one tap for water and a couple of tanks for Black waste (not too nice by Sunday but it had improved last year on previous years) - no hook up.

It's well worth it though, we've beds for 12 in our setup, less than a tenner each!

nailer8

100w solar panel keeps my battery up for EP every year. TBA since i got the solar panel i have never had a battery issue. Obviously i still watch usage, fridge is on Gas, all internal lighting is LED, keep inverter use to a minimum etc.

Cant stand the guys who run their engine every morning for a few hours when i am enjoying a child free lie in ;-)