Practicality of non-propane Camper
Is it possible to have an all-electric (or, at least, no propane) camper? Of course, been doing it since 2013. (OK, true confession, our outside grill is propane as you usually can't use charcoal we...
Forum Discussion
StirCrazy wrote:DiploStrat wrote:
Our current vehicle has 800Ah of lithium iron and 600w of solar. Of course, we also have a bigger, two door refrigerator.
Historic data: We budget 30 wall clock minutes of power per meal; 15 minutes of microwave and 15 minutes of induction cooktop. At a guesstimated consumption of 150A, this works out to about 75Ah for a dinner. With a two door refrigerator, fans/heat, lights, etc., we are usually down about 125 - 135Ah overnight.
Lithium iron allows a lot more power in less space/weight, but we did this for years with lead acid AGM.
While I can apreaceate the ability to do this I am still amazed at how much power people use when there camping.. Maybe I am just the not normal one.
in my truck camper with the furnace running most of the time my AH consumption is about 35AH a day. in my 40 foot 5th wheel it is only up around 85 at 28 degrees F so running the furnace, letting the kids watch 1 movie a night and using my kureg in the morning and after supper and the odd microwave use.. popcorn... so your supper alone is almost my entire days use , but I am using propane not power, and same for my fridge and furnace..
I reciently upgraded to LFP batteries in the camper, and I am still playing to see what I can do with it but my rough capacity is 9 to 10 times my daily use, as I use it a lot in the real early spring and late fall when there is or could be snow on the ground still and we get a lot of overcast days so I want to be able to go untill the sun comes back out and can charge everything up again. I plan on switching the 5th over also , just watching for screaming sales again..
I guess my thought process is that by leaving the furnace, fridge, and stove on Propane, I can focus my power on the lights, furnace fan, pumps etc which maximizes the length of time I can go.. with the solar set up in the summer water and take capacity are my limiting factors now as I can go a couple months on the propane and I'll never run out of power with the solar panels..
My electric use is even less. I don't run an onboard furnace - I use a Mr Heater and a small canister of propane to take off the chill the few times it's necessary. Electric only runs the water pump, a light or two for 30-60 minutes a day max, and recharging a phone/kindle when needed. I run out of fresh water long before I run out of battery (no solar) or propane.
