Last week while camping at Booloumba Creek near Kenilworth, the shade temp during the day reached 40C and the night temps did not drop below 22C for 3 days in a row! Upon arrival, happened to choose a spot in relatively shady spot near another camper. He was having trouble with connecting his solar panel and asked if I knew anything about solar. Very humbly, I said that I could probably help him. That was the beginning of discovering all the things that were going to make his camping impossible.
1. He had just purchased a really nice LG 80L compressor fridge/freezer which he had in the back of his tug. Great start!
2. He had a portable power box which contained 2 X 24ah batteries in parallel which he had bought at the big green shed - the last one they had - at a reduced price. Trouble was that he was advised that it would run his fridge, but they did not say how long! Also, the batteries were just ordinary sealed lead acid and not even deep cycle or AGM type, and because it was the last one in stock, it probably had not been charged for months or even longer. Although he said, he charged it up the night before he left and the "fully charged" light came on, and he did not pre-cool fridge on 240v beforehand, the battery power quickly dropped to "low" after a few minutes. Could not hold a charge as probably badly sulphated! Bad choice of portable battery power system. Should have been at least a 100ah AGM or more for the job and freshly charged up and tested under load. Having little knowledge of battery systems and failed to get proper advice on compressor fridge power demands, he also did not even have his battery box connected to the alternator of tug as a backup.
3. The solar panel was bought from a large camping store and was rated at 160w and had the standard cheap PWM controller on the back. He was told that it would be able to charge up his portable battery box but once again, he did not get the full story. But it was also on special and at a great price as end of stock, but no instructions even on the back. Worse still, this was his first time out with the panel and the controller was "dead". 18 volts available from panels to controller but zilch output (amps and volts) from controller for battery charging, and LED display not working. (probably because the battery box did not have sufficient voltage whilst connected to fridge to initially start up solar controller. A lot need a reasonable voltage to start up and he had no hope of getting that!) Unable to assist as all my panels have controllers bypassed and all power is fed in series to a central MPPT controller in my van. I was however, able to help him by connecting a lead from my external Anderson plug and by utilising a variety of cables and connectors was able to supply some sort of power to his fridge. Power to his battery box was unsuccessful as too much resistance in flat battery to provide sufficient current to fridge which required 4.55A on start up and 2.8A on run until low voltage on battery cut off fridge. Bad combination of battery and charger.
But in 40C temps in the shade and his tug was in the sun, it was a lost cause as temp in fridge rose to 13C, and early on the 3rd day, he had to throw out a lot of food and departed 3 days before planned.
A bit of a sad story, but wasted a lot of money because he did not seek advice, and was unprepared although he believed he had the right equipment. So if starting off and new to this style of camping, make sure you get good and complete advice of what is needed to make camping off grid successful and enjoyable too. Sometimes, "bargains" are real traps for the unwary and uninformed!
Note: my two absorption fridges running on gas maintained minus 19C in the freezer section throughout the whole time, ice-creams and frozen meats kept hard as a rock. Fridge area struggled through the day after door was opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner reaching 9C at times but pulled down to 5 or 6C by morning. No food or milk spoiled or lost. However, the thermostatically controlled cooling fans behind both fridges and also the internal fans did a fantastic job during this time and undoubtedly helped the cooling process.
1. He had just purchased a really nice LG 80L compressor fridge/freezer which he had in the back of his tug. Great start!
2. He had a portable power box which contained 2 X 24ah batteries in parallel which he had bought at the big green shed - the last one they had - at a reduced price. Trouble was that he was advised that it would run his fridge, but they did not say how long! Also, the batteries were just ordinary sealed lead acid and not even deep cycle or AGM type, and because it was the last one in stock, it probably had not been charged for months or even longer. Although he said, he charged it up the night before he left and the "fully charged" light came on, and he did not pre-cool fridge on 240v beforehand, the battery power quickly dropped to "low" after a few minutes. Could not hold a charge as probably badly sulphated! Bad choice of portable battery power system. Should have been at least a 100ah AGM or more for the job and freshly charged up and tested under load. Having little knowledge of battery systems and failed to get proper advice on compressor fridge power demands, he also did not even have his battery box connected to the alternator of tug as a backup.
3. The solar panel was bought from a large camping store and was rated at 160w and had the standard cheap PWM controller on the back. He was told that it would be able to charge up his portable battery box but once again, he did not get the full story. But it was also on special and at a great price as end of stock, but no instructions even on the back. Worse still, this was his first time out with the panel and the controller was "dead". 18 volts available from panels to controller but zilch output (amps and volts) from controller for battery charging, and LED display not working. (probably because the battery box did not have sufficient voltage whilst connected to fridge to initially start up solar controller. A lot need a reasonable voltage to start up and he had no hope of getting that!) Unable to assist as all my panels have controllers bypassed and all power is fed in series to a central MPPT controller in my van. I was however, able to help him by connecting a lead from my external Anderson plug and by utilising a variety of cables and connectors was able to supply some sort of power to his fridge. Power to his battery box was unsuccessful as too much resistance in flat battery to provide sufficient current to fridge which required 4.55A on start up and 2.8A on run until low voltage on battery cut off fridge. Bad combination of battery and charger.
But in 40C temps in the shade and his tug was in the sun, it was a lost cause as temp in fridge rose to 13C, and early on the 3rd day, he had to throw out a lot of food and departed 3 days before planned.
A bit of a sad story, but wasted a lot of money because he did not seek advice, and was unprepared although he believed he had the right equipment. So if starting off and new to this style of camping, make sure you get good and complete advice of what is needed to make camping off grid successful and enjoyable too. Sometimes, "bargains" are real traps for the unwary and uninformed!
Note: my two absorption fridges running on gas maintained minus 19C in the freezer section throughout the whole time, ice-creams and frozen meats kept hard as a rock. Fridge area struggled through the day after door was opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner reaching 9C at times but pulled down to 5 or 6C by morning. No food or milk spoiled or lost. However, the thermostatically controlled cooling fans behind both fridges and also the internal fans did a fantastic job during this time and undoubtedly helped the cooling process.
