RV FEATURE
Everyone goes to bed so the TV and lights are now turned off . But someone turns on a bedside lamp for an hour or two to read a book . All the electronic devices need to be charged so every available USB port is powered . Dad has sleep apnoea so on goes his CPAP machine .
Finally , all lights are turned off and everyone is asleep . The only power use comes from the fridge and dad ’ s CPAP machine , which will operate for the next eight hours .
It ’ s time to add up all that power usage . You ’ ll find by the time everyone wakes up the next morning , in the order of 140Ah has been drained from the van ’ s batteries !
Admittedly , this scenario doesn ’ t take into account any charging that may happen after you initially pull up . What it does show is that whatever charging system you have for free-camping , be it solar or generator , you now know how many amp hours you ’ re going to have to generate and feed back into those batteries before everyone goes back to bed the next day .
Next month , we will look more closely at solar power and discover just how difficult it can be for it to keep up with your 12V power requirements .
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