Help, newbie that doesn't understand electrics

[Thestiffs]

Hello
I've bought my first motorhome and don't understand the electrics, or what I can and can't plug in.
Does anyone have answers or has any links to where I could work this out, as I'm getting confused.

My van has a solar panel, an inverter and a 12v leisure battery (I think). Inside the van each plug socket is labelled as either 240 or inverter. I understand that 240 is for hook up and we've tested this and it works. we assume the solar panels work as the lights come on and the leisure battery is showing as fully charged.
I'm not sure what I can or can't plug into the inverter sockets and don't want to try incase I do damage. We are looking at buying some appliances, such as a fan but understand we need to get the correct watt plug.
We won't be using hook up, as will wild camp.
Thank you

 

[Firefox]

You need to check on your inverter and see what wattage it is. That will give you the max wattage you can plug in.

But in any case, plugging in stuff more than say 100W will flatten your leisure battery very quickly.

So if you just have the one leisure battery, I would only use the inverter sockets for phone charging, lap top, 1.5v-9v battery charging, led lighting, small TV, that kind of thing (0-100w).

 

[Thestiffs]

Thanks Firefox
So what about the volts, can I plug a 240v, but less than 100w appliance into the inverter plugs? Do the volts make a difference?
Do they even make appliances such as fans in that size?
Thanks

 

[Firefox]

The inverter steps up to 240V so anything you can normally plug in a 240V socket will go in the inverter sockets. Less than 100W is cool.

But the inverter gives you that higher voltage by drawing off a big current from your leisure battery, so if you plug in something like a heater or hairdrier, even if your inverter/wiring can handle it, it can flatten your leisure battery in 10 or 15 mins. Also bad news for a leisure battery is say a 240v fridge which could draw 50-150W and work OK off an inverter, but it's on all the time and that can flatten your leisure battery in 12 hours, more or less, depending on temperature conditions. So def hook up or gas operation needed for a fridge.

For fans you may be better off with 12V fans, but actually my 240V ceramic electric fan heater has a cool setting (fan only no elements) so that would work. I think it is only 100W on the cool setting, but like the fridge, if you had that on all the time, it would flatten your battery in 12 hours or so.

 

[oldish hippy]

dependent on current draw of appliance and size of lesuire battery will only run 240 volt item for set time before battery goes flat solar panel will top up battery when engine is not running and when you not plugged into mains so what size is lesuire battery and then you can work out roughly what length of time that a item will run as for fan get soome 200mm silent pc fans they dont consume a lot and if possible then leave two windows open if only a few mm to get a through draft and if have roof vent then crank it ope as wel as heat rises

 

[vindiboy]

Hi, If the previous owner of your van has gone to the trouble of fitting extra sockets for inverter power and labelling them [ I have done this also ] my guess would be that it is a big output inverter, find where the inverter is situated and see if it has a rating plate to tell you what size it is . it will have a switch on it to switch on and off, make sure it is off when not in use as it will draw power from your batteries,some inverters have a remote like a TV to switch on and off for when the inverter is fitted in an inaccessible place, usually on boats .As a guide I have a 2000 watt inverter in my van 3 leisure batteries and an 80 watt Solar Panel and I can power my wife's hair drier, vacumn cleaner [ full size domestic ], electric kettle,TV and DVD player Spin Drier and Camping Washing Machine, [Wilcamping must haves ] etc all in short bursts except the TV and DVD and have no battery problems.