Stick Another 50p In T' Meter!

If you jump on any of the VanLife or Campervan groups on Facebook, you'll notice they're awash with the same three topics at the moment, as people struggle with three issues in winter. Electricity (lack thereof), heat (lack thereof), and condensation (biblical proportions of). I moved into my van last October, so this is my second winter of VanLife - I almost feel like a bit of a salty old veteran this year! But I'll talk about my experiences of these three issues. Starting with 'leccy.

Now, I'll be brutal. Solar panels, in the UK, in winter, are about as much use as a chocolate pisspot. Partly due to the lack of daylight hours, and the hours we do get tend to be a bit grey in typical British fashion, but also just plain old lack of space on a van roof to accommodate more than a couple of panels, and the tendency for them to be fixed flat down rather than angled towards the sun. So the people that have built their vans, or at least their expectations, around the reliance of solar power to charge up their leisure batteries, are falling short of juice as we hit winter. Now I've got a pretty decent sized solar rig, by van standards anyway - a whole 750watts of black magic and witchcraft... Sat in storage. Yep. Not even fitted to the van, just sat there, gathering dust. They've been there for over a year now, I actually bought them quite early on in my build and just never fitted them. I will get round to hauling them up on the roof one day, but that day won't be in Winter. Another issue is power storage. Lesiure batteries don't like the cold, they take longer to charge, and self-discharge quite a bit in colder temperatures too, so a bit of a double-whammy when you're struggling to pull in power AND THEN LOSING the power you do normally get. There is a very simple answer to this VanLife problem though. Use. Less. Power. Needing less is the same as producing more, so if you can learn to be less reliant on electric you can be less reliant on producing it too.

Ok I don't have solar, so I don't find myself being consumed by how many free amps the great fireball in the sky is gifting me. I do have hookup and a battery charger, which I've used precisely twice, as I tend to be off-grid and not anywhere where I can plug in - so I charge my battery banks purely by driving. I don't typically stay in one place for more than two days at a time, so I'm driving anyway, and charging my cells via a basic split-charge is a pretty efficient way of generating juice - it typically takes around 1 hour to fully top up my 2 x 110amp batteries, and doesn't seem to make any noticeable difference to my MPG either, so while it's not quite as free as sun-leccy, it's a close second, and it gets me by comfortably. As for using less power, well that's a pretty standard comprise of moving from house to van really, and something that all crusty van-hobos have to adapt to quickly - but a bit more so in winter. I don't run my fridge, because I don't need to. It's a fairly decent size (55ltr) and uses 60watts, making it probably my biggest consumer of power, so if I don't have to use it I gladly wont, and winter is easy for not needing it. I keep a couple of ice blocks in the freezer compartment, and I pop these on the van roof overnight and chuck them back in the fridge in the morning, same with bottles of water. This keeps my food plenty cold enough through the day. 

Now I've mentioned before that I grew up poor as chuff as a kid, and fondly remember the days where we had a 50p electric meter, and when it ran out (frequently) we'd often have to wait for my dad to get home from work (or the pub) with some change to feed it. 

My mum would probably be incredibly embarrassed if she had any idea I was telling internet stangers any of this, but I'm not, I don't bregrudge growing up poor at all, I learned a lot about not taking things for granted, appreciating the little things, looking after that what I did have - and how to entertain myself without a TV. Plus it was the 80s, there was bugger all on the four telly channels on a black and white 14" portable we had then anyway. I played outside, I read comics (Beano > Dandy. Fact), I played with toys, I took said toys apart to figure out how they worked and put them back together again. I still do the same now - if my inverter starts frantically beeping at me to tell me I've been a bit frivolous with the precious juice, I'll throw the big killswitch switch and light a couple of candles, and I'll find something to do - ok so it's 2020 now and a lot of those rainy day or night time "somethings" are lithium-ion powered, my phone/tablet, Bluetooth speaker etc, which are hopefully charged enough to last me until I next set off driving - but I can happily get by without power on tap. Rationing electric is a normal part of this vanlife thing, so embrace it.

Ok I've waffled for far longer than I indended. My battery will run out if I'm not careful!

Bye for now! ✌️