Hello all,
A couple of questions wrapped into one.
I’m in the planning and budgeting stages of a new van build and while ideally I’d love to have both solar and a split charge realistically right now it will be one or the other. As we are predominantly weekend travellers and this will be within the UK I’m guessing split charge is more effective than solar. I understand that you really need proper sunlight for solar to charge and while we’ve had an amazing spring summer and autumn winter is on its way so is split charge the more intelligent option? I’ll add solar in at a later date, or thats the plan.
On a second related question I heard/read that a split charge was impacting the MPG of someone’s van (FIAT Ducato) to the extent of losing 5mpg with the split charge in place, recovered when he disconnected the split charge?? I’m no mechanic but I understood the split charger ran off the alternator and the alternator was basically a process of taking mechanical motion (the turning of the engine) and converting this into electricity, hence the alternator recharges the van battery and in the instance of using a split charger charges the leisure battery once the van battery is fully charged.
If anyone can share their experiences of solar vs split charge I’d be really grateful.
Thanks
Guy