How to thrive on a non 240v site!

I too have looked for the original post! I got some good advice before purchasing my solar panel last year

My set up is a 150w panel, did use a Safefill cylinder (15ltr), garage now closed and other garages will not fill it!! now use a 11kg Flo gas cylinder.

All LED lighting in caravan, small inverter for charging phone,  Avtex TV uses just under 3amp so moderate usage is OK, use temporary holiday sites, rallies, 5 van sites, summer and winter, no EHU. A good cheap way to caravan. In summer 11kg of gas lasted 19 nights, cooking, hot water, BBQ, no heating of course. In winter when I used the Safefill and with heating used around 12ltrs for 4 nights. Never had a problem of the 110amp battery running low on the winter photo and 12nights on the THS.

 Merve

I have made this thread sticky for you. I have slightly edited your first sentence to give it a more positive sounding start to your new thread. Some additional posts on this subject have been made in this thread which is now locked.

David 

Thanks David. Chris, don't give up on your Safefill. Many things are in the pipeline. To have non EHU caravanning, a Safefill is a great addition to save money. I really believe that the safefill cylinder will be the default cylinder for caravanners in the future. 150w ia a nice size SP. I would say, if you want to do non EHU caravanning seriously, 120w is the starting point. Notice I say seriously! If you don't want to use your microwave and toaster, vacuum and blender then smaller ones will do it. 

It's great that a new thread has been started. Thanks to Merve for his fortitude in keeping the old thread in the forefront of CT migrators' minds. 

I have ordered a new caravan with 100w SP and I'm also going to equip it with a Safefill cylinder. Our needs are relatively simple and if I can charge the phones and IT on 12v then I'm happy to use the microwave as a bread bin! 

Please keep contributing as every day is a learning day!

DD 

Please do not take this the wrong way but your 2nd photo looks like a travelers site with the gas outside etc.  so glad I'm not on site along side you

The issue with filling gas weather safefill or gaslow will not get any better as garages pull out of the market, only way it will improve is if dealers start selling it alongside calor/Flo gas.

We have 130w solar panel, 2*85amp batteries and gaslow (with calor backup) but use EHU when we can, charge most things thru a USB and see no need for an inverter as we can do without 240v appliances but who knows that may change.

From your gas usage it looks like it costs around half the cost of having EHU at around 3 litres a day @55p/l versus around £3 for EHU average so not such a huge saving compared to the cost of install etc. but it gives you flexibility and wider choice of sites.

Merve - how about you list your various  gizmos for being off grid - again.  I have got on pretty well with 80w panel but I don't use a microwave or toaster. 

Merve.

After following your thread during the last couple of years we invested in a 140 panel and a large Safefill bottle , money well spent .

Well done wye- it's great to know that others have found that spending on equipment and modern tech is not necessarily a way of just spending money- do it right and the money comes back to you in savings- a win win situation if ever there was one! 

Pippah- how are you- hard to believe that we are nearly at the next show as we met and talked in the autumn. How are the owls? Equipment I have is 135w SP ( always been fine but you know me- always wanting something bigger- now I would go for 200w) I added a second 110ah battery and a later a 2000w pure sine wave inverter from Falcon. This allows me to use microwave, toaster, blender and vacuum. All of them are not used for long and that is free power- why use gas when the sun provides the power. (even if it is Safefill gas at 25% of the price of swapped cylinders!!) The inverter is controlled by an illuminated switch at the end of the bed box so we don't have to lift the bed up - it's easy to switch on when needed and easy to kill when not. (An inverter continues to draw power when switched on). The system is protected by a 100amp fuse. What would I like in the future? Two Li ion Batteries which weigh half of what I have now and they hold more charge and of course the 200w SP. A compressor fridge which uses very little leccy- mmm - I'll have to have a word with the boss! 

MichealT hi. I think you will find that Safefill will continue to get sites. Neil and John  at Safefill are working extremely hard to bring this about. Keep the faith. It will happen I'm sure. It's too good a product not to become a massive winner with campers, caravanners, boaters, plumbers, roofers- the list goes on and I haven't even mentioned gas BBQs!!- how many millions of those are there? People power and demand will win in the end. When a garage has turned away the tenth person in a day wanting to fill their SF cylinder, they will start to think about the money they have lost. If they allow themselves to be dominated by Calor or Flo then that's up to them but in the end, there is absolutely no reason not to fill a SF cylinder. For me, it sits alongside SPs, LED lighting and USB charging as a Godsend to us lot!!

We also lost a very good thread on "Alternative Energy," I think somewhere in that thread was a pointer to a spreadsheet for calculating the size of the solar panel.You estimating your 12 volt power consumption over a 24 hour period and input your estimates and battery size into the spread sheet. Fortunately I have a copy and I have made this available to download or open >here<.

It is easy to play around with scenarios until you think you have a good idea of what size panel you might fit or have fitted. Have fun.

peedee

P.S. The spreadsheet contains my estimates and I did fit a 120 watt panel which even in the winter is keeping my battery charged when parked up.