# power packs



## CARJEM

looking at EZA lithium power packs fitted with a 1500w inverter, as we want to be as self sufficient as possible. (hoping not to pay for electric hook ups.)
this is going to be our home, not holidays and a girl needs her hairdryer!
any advice please........


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## Teutone

£2800 for the cheapest one with 125Ah capacity ?  Thanks but no thanks. And you still need to charge them same as "normal" leisure batteries.
I would spend the money on some decent lead/acid batteries and upgrade the vehicle charing system. Solar, B2B or even one of these battery charger generators.


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## Tbear

For the price of one, you can have at least 500 hookups. Or a state of the art solar and lead acid system professionally installed.

Richard


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## st3v3

Energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, lithium is great, but no more efficient than any other battery. 

How will you  charge it?


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## voyagerstan

For 2500 quids worth of solar you could be selling back to the national grid .


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## trevskoda

CARJEM said:


> looking at EZA lithium power packs fitted with a 1500w inverter, as we want to be as self sufficient as possible. (hoping not to pay for electric hook ups.)
> this is going to be our home, not holidays and a girl needs her hairdryer!
> any advice please........



I have a 12 v h/dryer and its just about ok ,use a towel.
Dont wast dosh on power pack just add more batts and solar panels 3/400 watts and a big bank of l/acid batts ,4 to 6 will be fine if you must use a inverter but i would stick to 12v goods.


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## shortcircuit

CARJEM said:


> looking at EZA lithium power packs fitted with a 1500w inverter, as we want to be as self sufficient as possible. (hoping not to pay for electric hook ups.)
> this is going to be our home, not holidays and a girl needs her hairdryer!
> any advice please........



Crew cut ????


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## delicagirl

swiftcamper said:


> To really be self sufficient with power supply you will need a combination of several sources.
> Contary to popular belief *solar is all but useless in the UK between September and May*.
> Battery to battery chargers are supposed to work well but unless you are running the engine again not much use, a generator is great but unless you have really good chargers and a matched size of battery bank it will only provide instant power.
> You really can spend a fortune and still end up with a useless system.
> Do your research and ignore most of the rubbish you will be told.



I dont agree  - I have been out in the van for many weeks in the autumn, winter and early spring  using only one  solar panel and no electrical hook ups.  I have one engine battery and three leisure batteries. As long as you measure your batteries daily, and if they drop below the acceptable level, then either run the engine or go for a short drive you will have power.   Having said that  I do not use 240 volt appliances - and I have long hair which I let dry naturally. 

Some compromises when living in a van permanently are inevitable..    hair drying is one of them.....


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## st3v3

delicagirl said:


> I dont agree



I think you're very conservative with your battery - which is good. I completely agree with you that it's possible to live like that, but you're running the bare minimum. Start adding TV, DVD, blown air heating and it gets significantly more difficult.


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## n brown

get a small suitcase generator with electric start, put it somewhere sensible,like a back box or side entry cupboard. use to top up batts and run heavier stuff when necessary,if  you have to go and sit in a layby for a couple of hours to run it , that's part of it, and you'll have charged the batts enough to run the heating and lights etc


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## trevskoda

swiftcamper said:


> You are talking total nonsense try really doing it for real unlike most who are weekend warriors we have lived in a van for over 5 years.
> We really do not use much power and certainly do not dry hair.



A bit harsh there baldly,should have offered to go round and towel here down.:lol-049:


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## delicagirl

st3v3 said:


> I think you're very *conservative with your battery *- which is good. I completely agree with you that it's possible to live like that, but you're running the bare minimum. Start adding TV, DVD, blown air heating and it gets significantly more difficult.



You are right I am frugal with power usage....  i have a gas fire for heating, and I dont have a TV and use my laptop for writing and CD playing music, so my electrical needs are relatively few.  Replacing all my lighting with LED also made a difference to my power needs.


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## st3v3

swiftcamper said:


> We so all that too but once you use any form of blown air heating that really uses the power big time.



Agreed Charlie. I've changed the controller as I was talking about and with the main two lights on and the heating I'm well over 4 amps - loads.

Clear winter day the solar was putting in an Amp while it was bright from a 120W panel - it's not going to last long.

That 25A power supply/3 stage charger I've bought does exactly what it says on the tin, so hoping when I go for a weekend off grid the battery will start at a level to support us


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## delicagirl

swiftcamper said:


> You only have to go on a winter meet to see how many of them are suffering from flat batteries.
> Winds me up those that keep posting how they can manage for days on end in the winter with *one battery *and a solar panel.




my post clearly says I have 4  batteries .....


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## n brown

at least with a genny you have power when you want it. very nice if all the clever stuff works as you hope, but if there's any hiccups, it's reassuring to know the genny will sort you out .we had 2 when fulltiming,a 600 for charging ,lights and a bit of telly sometimes,and a 3.5 for power tools and welding. sod the noise,life goes on !


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## n brown

swiftcamper said:


> We have the 2 ,the on-board and the Honda eu20i but at about £6 per hour to run the on-board generator we really only use it for short periods just to run the microwave or similar.
> Saving up the pennies to spend out on battery to battery charger and a really decent mains charger.


if you stopped eating so much meat and ate more salad, vegetables, lentils and pasta, you'd be healthier and wealthier,and could soon afford these things .
vegans rule ok!


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## n brown

found a pic of your true love,looking good !View attachment 37208
see you soon !


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## st3v3

Charlie - beef wellington? Finest beef medium rare, cracking sauce and 'something' around the outside - what do you reckon?


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## Johnnygm7lsi

That Battery to Battery sounds a good idea for you, I cant get my head around these petrol generators, even the Honda EU20i only puts out 8amps, it will take forever to charge your battery bank at that rate


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## Johnnygm7lsi

The Batt 2 Batt I have puts out 120amps, charges the batts up from 50% in about 20/25mins off of the MH engine


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## trevskoda

Johnnygm7lsi said:


> That Battery to Battery sounds a good idea for you, I cant get my head around these petrol generators, even the Honda EU20i only puts out 8amps, it will take forever to charge your battery bank at that rate



Yes but if you plug in a car jump starter charger like a absar it will pump out 150ah boost charge at 14.5 volts,i can start a van of this in about one minute,it has a lower setting of 28ah for slow charge so not to boil battery over longer time .
But if you had a bank of 4 batters at 4/5 hundred ah and require 35% top up one to two hr charge will have them up again.:idea-007::blah:


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## Teutone

swiftcamper said:


> We so all that too but once you use any form of blown air heating that really uses the power big time.
> We want to be comfortable without having to compromise it is impossible in winter without either being on ehu or running the generator.



I posted this before and I am getting tired of doing it over and over again. You CAN use solar in the winter. I agree with you, it will not be enough longterm and you need ENOUGH solar panels to make it work. We have been out 5 days without hookup and not moving at all using TV, blown air heating 24/7 (but with a bit of commom sense) and the batteries where just fine. But I would guess that after two more days we would have needed to use the engine for charge or else.

You just keep repeating over and over again that solar is useless. Don't be bitter if yours doesn't work. Have a good investigation and sort it out.


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## Tbear

Hi Carjem,

It says in your profile that you do not have a van. Are you thinking about buying your first one to live in full time. I ask because that would be a very steep learning curve and as you have seen above, we all have very different likes and needs so it is very difficult for us to advise without a lot of detail of your needs. Even then, expect some controversy. 

Richard


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## CARJEM

*Eza lithium power pack*

Thanks for all your replies.
We are about to buy our 'Forever Home' on wheels. It is going to be a learning curve, but an experience. We are looking forward to it.

Tbear states that it will be at least 500 hookups to pay for itself, therefore its paid for itself in a year and a half.
We shall have 120w solar panel.
4-6 batteries, banner batteries are about £200 each, storage/space/weight ?
A generator costs about £500 and about £6 an hour to run according to this post. We would rather not have to sit in lay-bys charging up batteries.

We were hoping to hear from someone that had owned a Eza lithium power pack. We have looked at 'RoadPro' products and reviews and we were very impressed.
we want to get the best advice but realise that everyone has pros and cons.

p.s i do towel dry but sometimes like the luxury of a hair dryer !

We would like to thank you all for your responses

Carole :newhere:


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## Tbear

Sorry if I did not make myself clear but you would only normally need a hookup one night in three so that would be four and a half years. If you where using a cheap site that where getting a regular income from you, it could be much longer. It would only pay for itself against hookups. Against lead acid it would never catch up against the best deep cycle ones, against the ordinary ones??? Do you really think that you can manage with just one battery, living full time in the van?

Road Pro are a good company providing some very specialist gear.

Richard


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## Teutone

swiftcamper said:


> Not bitter at all just don't want people to be misled you only have to do some research to know that solar panels are next to useless in the UK between September and May.especially when mounted flat on the roof.
> Or are all the solar experts and calculations used just nonsense.
> We would need around 4 kW of panels in the winter months to provide enough charge to a 450 ah battery bank.



I have done better than research. I have real experience with two panels on my roof. As I said before, I don't fully disagree with you but you can't  look at yourself (guess not many people need 450 aH) and shy everybody else away from solar just because it doesn't  satisfy your needs.


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## Tbear

I think we can all agree that solar is as predictable as the weather.

We did have someone on here that had mounted their panels using hinges for double glazed windows so he could improve the angle to the sun considerable. Sounded a good idea?

Richard


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## delicagirl

Last winter (mid Dec to mid Jan) I was out for a month in Wales, lakes, Scotland and Yorkshire dales. It got to -10 in Scotland. I have GAS heating and gas cooking and don't have a tele or hair dryer.  I have one solar panel on the sloping over-cab roof. I have 3 leisure batteries. i do not use 240v appliances. I did not  go on hookup once. .  

For me it was possible to live without hookup.    you just have to choose what electrical appliances you use.  We all live in different ways in houses the same applies to vans


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## Admin

With solar panels there are several things to consider:



Type of panel (monocrystalline / polycrystaline)
Type of cable (poor cabling = loss of energy)
Type of charger (rubbish charger = rubbish charging)
Position of panel (in relation to sun)
Quality of the panel (good cell manufacturer)
How clean is the panel? (dirty panel = bad performance)


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