Lessons

Lesson Info

Van Details: Power Management

(upbeat music) All right, let's talk about electrical; how much you need, why you need it, and some of the pros and cons of having a lot versus a little. This is gonna be some technical jargon, but I have 600 amp hours of lithium batteries which means I have two batteries about this big. It doesn't take up a ton of space in my van but it is a lot of power. And 600 amp hours of lithium is a pretty sizeable battery bank at least for today's standards. And it allows me to have all of my appliances powered by the solar panel on top and the alternator when I'm running my van or I have a shore power inlet, where basically, if I'm you know, if it's around the holidays and I'm not, I'm hanging out at my family's house, I'm not driving. There's not a lot of solar power to be had, cause the sun's low. I can just run an extension cord and plug it into anybody's house or, or any outlet that I can find. All right, so breaking down the electrical system in a van it all hinges on your battery bank,...

how big your battery bank is basically. So I have a sizable battery bank that will allow me to, if it's fully charged to live off grid for like a week or something I would guess. I've never actually done it without ever charging it, but yeah, it would, it would last given my power needs, how I cook on this stove all the time, and I run my fridge constantly. It would allow me to live off grid for at least a week. So when you have your battery bank, you need a way to charge that battery bank. You're constantly using that energy. You need a way to replenish that battery. And in this van, there's three different ways to replenish the battery. I have a big solar panel on my roof, when it's sunny, like right now it's charging. And I have also a big cable that runs from my battery bank all the way up into my alternator, so under my hood, and when I'm driving down the road, it charges my batteries also. If for some reason it's not sunny and I'm not driving the van, I can actually just plug an extension cord also into my battery bank and charge it through any outlet that I can find. So that's called shore power. It's really nice to have three different ways to charge your batteries. That's ideal. A lot of my other vans, you know, only had solar. And so when there's no sun outside I don't really get any more juice. And my batteries very quickly start to go down. For me, I think the most important way to charge my battery bank is probably the alternator because I am constantly moving, constantly driving. And that's probably the single most important way that I charge my batteries. It's never a good idea to skimp on batteries. That's what I found out the hard way. My first van, I basically went on Amazon and got the cheapest batteries I could find. I wanted the biggest system for the smallest amount of money and I had issues with those batteries constantly. There's multiple different types of batteries. The cheaper option is deep cycle AGM batteries. They're bigger, heavier, cheaper. And then the higher end is lithium. I like to think of it as lithium is three times more expensive than AGM. They're three times more compact. So you're saving space when you invest more money in lithium and they're also three times more effective. So to me, it's a, it's kind of a no brainer that Lithium is worth it as long as you can afford it. Yeah. So I think a good rule of thumb with the battery bank is the more, the better, to be honest. I've had small battery banks and I have a pretty big one in this van. 600 amp hours is big for my needs; I'm cooking every day and using it every day, but rarely do I ever go below 300 amp hours. So rarely do I go below 50%. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Okay. So by far the appliance that I use or that uses the most energy in my build is the induction stove, the induction cooktop which I really like, but you need a big battery bank to be able to power it. The easy way to get around that power draw is just to use a propane stove. A lot of people, I would say majority of van lifers, just use propane stoves. The biggest downside and the reason why I didn't want to do that was that with a propane stove, you need basically a big propane tank. You know, you could do a smaller propane tank but then you'd be refilling it constantly; it'd be more maintenance. The smaller tank would take up less space cause space is so valuable in a build like this but I always had like a bigger, more barbecue style propane tank and then I have to allocate all that space to put the tank in there. And you know it would always run out in the worst possible time. So I'd be out in the middle of nowhere and propane would run out and we wouldn't be able to cook anything. That's the main reason why I went with the induction stove. Another real nice part of the induction stove is that it's a flat surface and when I'm not using the stove, I can just use it as basically a countertop. Whereas the propane stove usually has like these you know, big like metal burner, like covers on it. So it's less usable space. Another massive draw obviously is if you have an AC unit. It takes a lot of power to run an AC unit, so much that I can't even really do it in this build. I generally just rely on well placed vents and a really strong fan. A nice feature that I've really liked in my van, is just having a toaster oven. It sounds funny, but I make cookies all the time. And for me it's like the easiest embodiment of like, a really nice homey feel is to have a home cooked cookie. So over the years, I've just really grown to like having that toaster oven to be able to do that. Sometimes I, you know, have leftovers from a meal and it's just nice to always be able to throw something in and warm it up. So that toaster oven is nice, but it also draws quite a bit of power. Especially if I'm cooking something for like 10 minutes or more, you know, that could draw like, 10% of my battery running that oven for that long. Another massive consideration is the fridge. What type of fridge you get really affects how much is consistently being drawn from your battery bank. Like I invested in a Dometic. I think it's a 75 liter top loading fridge. I liked it because it could also be used, it could be doubled as a bench. It was about the right height for a bench. So I just, I use it as my workstation. I sit on my fridge as the bench. And so that's consistently on and keeping all my food cold and also like my frozen like fruit and ice cream and all that stuff frozen. So it's important to get a fridge that's designed for van life. I know a few people that have just went out and bought like a mini, like dorm style fridge at Walmart. And it sucks a lot of power for how much capacity and how much convenience it gives you. So yeah, that's one thing to factor in. It's not the biggest power draw in my build, but it's consistent, you know? So. When I run my stove for 10 minutes or 20 minutes it might bring my whole battery bank down 10%. But when I run my fridge for a whole day, it still probably drains it over time for the whole day, maybe 10%. So it's just a consistent small draw that you have to factor in when you're thinking about how much battery bank power you need, how much storage you need, how much solar you need on the top, all that, you really just have to think about. Yeah. A few other factors or a few other power draws are the fan, the lights, the lights are surprisingly very low. The heater is also a pretty small power draw but I run it all night long, so it does drain it maybe a few percent overnight. And also, you know, if you're gonna be charging, if you're gonna be working on your laptop, charging your laptop, charging your phones, charging cameras, all that stuff, for me can take a lot of of power if I'm doing like a massive charging session. So the majority of my electrical system is wired as 12 volt but I do have a few appliances in here like a blender and the toaster oven that aren't converted into 12 volt electricity; it's 120 volt. Meaning, you know, when you buy something, buy an appliance, it just has a standard plug. For me to use that plug, to plug it in, I have to turn on an inverter. An inverter is another piece of the electrical system. I have a 3000 Watt inverter so I can run, you know, basically any blender. I can run a toaster oven, all that stuff but I need to flip on the inverter to be able to plug it in and have live power. Admittedly, I'm not the most knowledgeable person about the electrical system. I generally have friends that are more experts in this come and help me to determine, you know what the right gauge of wire is to connect the inverter to the charge controller and all the different technical aspects. But I hope that this overview helped you a little bit, understand how it all works, maybe help you gauge how much power and how much battery storage you need because it is a really big decision. It can get really expensive. It can take up a lot of precious space in your van. One thing I will say is that over the five vans that I've lived in, every van gets more and more battery storage, more solar, more everything. Like I think it's one of those things that it's really important not to skimp on a battery system and on the power system because the bigger of a system you have, the more it feels like a legit house. You don't have to worry about, oh my batteries are under 50%. So I actually can't make that smoothie or whatever. It just, it mentally goes into the whole unit feeling like a home. Like you can rely on it at all times. You don't have to really alter your lifestyle in any way. So you have all the comforts of home without ever having to stress about, oh, my battery's not working, or my lights don't turn on. Like, which I've I've had in the past and it is really not fun. So, yeah. Try not to skimp on your battery system. It's really important to analyze, you know your power usage. If you cook a lot, if you really need that AC, if you live in Arizona and maybe that's like a really big selling point for you then you're gonna have to have a really big battery bank to power that AC unit. Yeah. In the end, it's, you know, living in a van is always gonna be different than a house. Anytime I turn on the stove, I watch the battery percentage go down. You know it, you have to be a little bit more proactive about your decisions. Rarely do I hear people complain about having too big of a battery bank. You know, 600 amp hours for me is really the perfect size cause I never dip below 50%. And for that reason, just over the years of living in this thing, it's just a peace of mind. Like even though I'm using the, if I'm making a meal and it goes down from a hundred percent to 90%, I know that when I drive to the store, it's gonna charge that 10%. You know, anytime I turn on the engine, it charges. Anytime the sun's out middle of the day, it's charging. So it's nice to be confident in your battery bank, in your, in just the functionality of your electrical system that you can rely on it. I'm speaking from experience because the first few vans that I had just constantly had problems in the electrical system. And I found myself trouble shooting it all the time. And that's no fun. You know, when you don't have the ability to cook food or turn on the lights, or charge your camera gear when you need it, it doesn't really feel like a house then. It feels more like a liability, like you can't rely on it. So yeah it's a very important part to design your battery bank to be functional, to work on its own, to not have to worry about it, to be big enough for your needs. So you need to evaluate how much you're gonna be cooking. If you have that AC, if you have a heater, if you have all these nice amenities to make it feel like a house, you really need that big battery bank to compliment it.