Twin Battery & Inverter Chat Help

[Justsomebloke]

Appreciate any help given. Van = Mk6 Transit 2.4 RWD.

Am thinking on my Twin Battery & Inverter set up.

Are there any issues I need to be aware of when choosing my batterys ?
Best Value for money Leisure battery ?
Best Van Battery to Twin it with ?
Best 1000w Inverter Pure Sine Wave Inverter to go with the above ?

Appreciate any links for Battery & Inverter, Budget is as cheap as possible but baring in mind I want it to work & work well.

Usage will be on over nighters in lay bys & the like, Charging my Moby & my Laptop & 1 or 2 strip lights. Can't take any chances with my Laptop so I am aware I can't go uber cheap.

Interested in how I can use Solar power in amongst it all to help as well, Got loads of roof space.

Also would appreciate the "Technical" terms posted where appropriate as well.

What's that thing called that will stop me draining my van battery ? Isolator switch ?

Any Diagrams about showing the battery set up + leisure battery + Isolator switch (?)

& Finally Should I just keep all my questions in one thread or is it best to post a few threads in the relevant sections ?

Thanks again all.

[Kedishen]

Everything you need you can buy from ebay.

I have questions:

How long will you use laptop for each night?

A modern laptop will draw about 2-3amps at full power. There is a program called CoreTemp if you want to know how many amps your laptop is drawing.

With a fully charged (not just from van alternator) 1x 100AH leisure battery you could use a 3amp draw for 3-4 hours before you should stop using it. With 2x 100aH battery, i can run my laptop from sunset to dawn until about 3am before dropping below 12.2v.

What time of year will you want to use van?

In winter in UK, you will want at least 300watts of solar power to recharge a drained battery in the 4-5hours of good sunlight.
During summer, 100watt is just about sufficient.

What exactly is your budget here for everything?

These are just rough estimates based on previous research.

+ 1x 100ah leisure battery - £55
- Cabling (i used 5mm diametre cable all round) - £20
- Connectors - £10
- Inline fuses - £10
- Mini Fusebox - £5
- 12v socket - £4

+ 100watt solar panel - £80
- 10/20amp regulator - £15-30
- Mounts - £15
- Cabling - £20
- Connectors - £10

12v Laptop power supply - £15-30 (better to get a reasonable one here. Not a cheapy sh*t electrical buzz one)
12v Phone charger - £5

Are there any issues I need to be aware of when choosing my batterys ?
GEL batteries are best, but expensive. Something like this is fine for your purposes.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/POWERLINE-100 ... 3f21b3c8c9

My mate uses one of these and it served his needs adequately.



Best 1000w Inverter Pure Sine Wave Inverter to go with the above ?

This will cost between £200-300. What will you want to use it for besides your laptop? Modern laptops only pull about 1-3amps max. The laptop i am using right now is a HP G62 and at idle, it uses 0.9amps, when watching a film with wifi on 1.7amps... My old HP laptop for 2006 takes 2amps at tickover and 3.7amps with wifi and film.

If its just for your laptop, you are much better off using a 12v charger for the laptop. They are much cheaper and are much better for your leisure battery as they take less power to run.

[Justsomebloke]

Thanks for taking the time to post all the info you have, I'll take on board what you have said & work out my usage better then come back to the thread.
For starters my Laptop is a bit greedy it's a Lenovo G60
Specs,,,
I5 2450M CPU
8GB DDR3 ram
6650M GPU 2GB GDDR5
17.3 inch screen
500GB HDD
Switchable GFX
2 mega pixel camera
DVD rw drive
USB 3.0 port and 3 USB 2.0 ports
Esata
Windows 7 home premium 64 bit
Lots of extras

It pretends to be a Gaming Laptop but it's not I just bought it as a powerful Laptop to use instead of my old Gaming Desktop. I can back it down on Battery/Power usage but never needed to before so have no idea what power it uses ?
As a Laptop it's great, I have it plugged into my 40" flatty when at home & sofa surf using a Bluetooth KB & a Logitech Trackball.
Initially in the Camper I was thinking flat screen telly & an aeriel/Dish but then my Brain caught up with the rest of the World & realised just how easy it would be to use either a Tablet or my Laptop. As I already have a decent'ish Laptop I may as well just use this & use my Galaxy S3 as a Hotspot. I have SkyGo so once the Laptop/S3 is set up I'll have Superb entertainment with minimal outlay cash wise, Laptop set up will also take up less space & weigh less & the low power usage is a right bonus, It's the perfect solution all round.

Think usage is just the charging of my S3, Use of Laptop & a couple of strip lights but like I said earlier I'll have a think & come back to the thread.

I really appreciate the help though as I am like a duck out of water here, No make that a Fish out of water up a hill in a desert holding one of those kitchen towels that is sucking the last bit of moisture from me.

[Kedishen]

Sounds like you are a heavy computer user like me.

I turned off all the background services that I don't need and reduce screen brightness to lowest. Uses much less power.

When I was on a one battery setup and during the winter, I run from laptop battery and then remove and run on leisure battery. Then recharge laptop battery next day - several laptop batteries are useful (have 3 for my old laptop).

But the setup I costed roughly is a completely doable setup.

I run a 100w panel, 2x 100ah batteries, split charged from alternator and a voltage activated relay to keep engine battery charged when parked.

I live in Portugal and if I had 2 changes to make, i would add two more 100ah batteries, and 2 more 100w solar panels.

[Justsomebloke]

Laptop is a Lenovo G770 not a G60, Sorry my mistake.

Yep am a heavy PC/Web user, Used to online game a lot so taught myself how to build a decent gaming system & overclock it for best bang for buck performance.
Nowadays I use the web as a resource & also have a lot of friends online & I'm active on a few forums. Works out well for this usage though, S3 Hotspot my Laptop & Sky Go for entertainment & my forums & Emails & IM's for my Social. All using minimal power & all light & easily storable. I'll pretty much have what I have at home but will be anywhere I like.

This just gets better & better.