Electrically inept...

Lmao

4 12v batteries daisy chained and 3000w inverter. Bonus solar panels on roof. Or u could get apu. Shits expensive though

>>1008259
You might as well just live in your local KOA

>>1008285
I'm not trying to build a luxury camper. I'm building a mobile apartment.

>>1008317
I live in semi truck bro and 4 12v batts can last about 8 hrs on gaming laptop w 1500 w inverter

>>1008317
Well where you gonna find that AC power source that isn't you bumming off someone

>>1008259
>I would need to be able to live off of the batteries for at least a week without really rationing power or needing to recharge.
I will start here OP, this is not possible at your power demands. Even with the whole roof covered in solar cells it won't happen. You will need: batteries, inverter, rv electrical panel, transfer switch, generator with the same fuel source as your vehicles engine, a battery isolator to separate your starting battery from your coach batteries. Probably a larger alternator. Your inverter should have a charging function built in, and be able start generator/pass power through from gen/plug. Its going to cost more than your vehicle, and expect to have to pay someone to do it

>>1008329
Was going to add, the inverter should have an ags as well

>>1008259
energy efficient laptop, possible.
charging dock, sure no problem.
led lights, just get the straight up battery powered ones, and just buy AA's.
Fan or heater... ok, maybe, heater is tough because they tend to eat a lot of heat.
cooler/fridge and water heater... nope. nope nope nope. that's a major power hog, and tough to justify.
airbrush, power tools, 3D printer, lolololol.

And wtf is the week thing about?

>>1008317
Nope. luxury camper < mobile apartment. you want to also put in a power system and cold food storage system, instead of a propane stove and canned/dry/fresh food like a camper would have.

you're trying to make a mobile home, but with its own independent power system.

honestly, wtf would you need a fridge and not a toilet? and where you you be able to use a toilet but not get a power hookup bummed off a gas station or something.

OP here

>>1008327

I imagine I'd pay to park it somewhere while I'm in a given town, and split the utilities with the person I rent space from. Like bringing a room for rent to someone's house. There are always people looking to make an extra buck.

>>1008337
Sorry. I didn't mean a water heater like a utility water heater. I meant like an electric kettle.

a super efficient 12v fridge isn't possible? I have seen some models that kick on only a few times a day, for minutes at a time unless open. I've been looking into the sunfrost or some of the energy-conscious trucker fridges - a bulky, ultra insulated cube with a tiny 4 cubic foot space for food storage. I admit, I'm electrically retarded, but if a fridge used 18 amp-hrs a day at .2 kWh, even one 100Ah battery should run it for a while, right? I guess I don't know how to figure how long, so maybe I'm wrong.

As far as the power tools, I'd probably just do 18v or 20v cordless on trickle chargers. They won't be a frequent thing.

I could consider a generator for running the airbrush / 3d printer, right? I'm surprised that that can't be done on a battery. Does every RV just have a generator in it?

>>1008329
I'm not expecting it to be cheap, but I'm wagering it's cheaper than hotels, short-term leases, etc. I refuse to pay someone to do it. I'll read a book if I have to. Other than the tremendous air of doubt, this post was helpful, thanks. I don't think I'd need a generator.

>>1008386

My advice would be to look into barge or longboat power setups.

Although they can be hooked up to mains, most of the time the electrical systems are independent of the power grid.

Those little fridges tend to either be fan driven, which are utterly useless for food, or they tend to be too hoggy for your proposed setup.

You can buy gas powered fridges, or at least you used to be able to.

Your other issue will be heating both your van and food or water. Any sort of heating element will rip the power out of your leisure cells. I'd go with the anon above regarding using gas for these tasks.

Power tools will likely need more continuous
oomph than your invertor can handle. There are also issues with the waveform inverters use vs mains power. Meaning some electrical items are incompatible.

Rather than posting on /DIY/ I strongly suggest you do a lot of googling or find a sustainable energy forum for specifics on mobile low power installs.

Lastly, it's worth paying to achieve a decent fit and finish, since you'll be living in a very confined space. Any snags or gaps in your fittings will quickly become the bane of your existence. Not to mention making sure you use the appropriate materials and components in the electrical side.

Skimping on skill, parts and knowledge is not a good idea when this will be your only refuge.

My most liberal estimates for my daily power consumption are 145ah per day. That's assuming a few things:
-that the 4cu/ft fridge/freezer (the sunfrost rf4 - incredible efficiency for $1800) is running at a 1/3 duty cycle, which is the worst case scenario (making ice on a 90F day).

-That my element 19" monitor/TV (also super efficient - 30w) is operational for 8hrs a day, and that my laptop is operating under the most stress I have been able to subject it to at 70w for 8 hours as well. (it emulates a ps2 @ ~40w)

2 of every smartphone, hotspot, pair of wireless headphones or smartwatch I own is charging 24hrs a day, my smartphone (and it's imaginary counterpart) is pulling it's maximum measurable load of 9w, totaling around 50 watts.

That my 130w dremel is continuously 'on' for an hour each day (an hour a month would be more realistic).

And having 5, 12w philip's hue bluetooth color change light bulbs, and the hue wifi bridge, running 5 hours a day (another extreme overestimate)

And finally, my model assumes that two 18v power tool chargers are charging a battery each, twice a day.

After educating myself throughout the day, I believe that nine, inline 200ah 12v deep cycle agm batteries with a 1500w inverter and an auxiliary alternator should do the trick. 1800ah total at 12v, when my drain is rougly 1050 for 7 days will give me a buffer for running an electric kettle once in a while, a pressure cooker (super efficient) when I feel like cooking, and a high velocity fan when it is hot. My heating needs may need to be propane or kerosene based, which I'm okay with. The airbrush, I will run off of a large airtank, and run the compressor at a friend's house when I am able. I could run it off of the battery bank, but I don't want to cycle them much deeper than 1200Ah.

To clear up any confusion about my intention, I'm building this as a mobile/rent free apartment, hotel room alternative, art studio, store front and camper. A semi-permanent propane or septic system will classify it as an RV, which I am trying to avoid (that limits the places it can be parked legally, hindering my ability to use it for business). The toilet is as easy to bum as power, and I have a handful of girls who would begrudgingly let me clean up at their place. The reason the power bank needs to run for a week is because that's the worst case scenario for a music festival or street fair or just needing to get away. None of the electrical aspects are especially important to my domicile, just a thick layer of icing on my box van dream cake.

I still don't know how to wire a battery meter. If I order one on ebay, would it come with instructions?

>>1008439
A voltage meter should be as easy as hooking the negative end up to the negative side of the battery block, and the positive end up to the positive side. The draw back is you'll only be able to check what the peak voltage is, not if any of the cells are low.

On that thought, it'll be a chore for the alternator to charge all 9 batteries and the van battery, and charge them evenly. Might not be a big issue, but what I'd do is look into having a separate alternator for those batteries. You can get a high output alternator(300+ watts), fashion a mount, and if you're feeling ballsy isolate it from ground throughout the vehicle. It'll lower your gas mileage a little, but better than having all your batteries(including the one used to start your van) die on you. A hook up for camper power would be nice, that would by pass the inverter as well as power on a battery charger for the batteries. I think they're 30 amp plugs, but any camper store will sell an adapter for a 15 amp extension cord for a couple of bucks. This will allow you the option to rent a campground spot with power hook up for probably $20-$40 a night, depending on how popular and clean the campground is. This will probably allow you access to a shower and shitter too.

>>1008384
>I meant like an electric kettle.
One of those will usually suck down 2kw easily.
Just get a gas burner.

>>1008384
Have fun getting fucked over if you're ever in an accident and your sweet ride gets wrecked, aftermarket mods generally aren't insurable

You'd run cheaper using a cooler with ice, wood fire for cooking, and setting up in public libraries or something. Using electricity as the middleman is nice but cuts into energy efficiency, far more so if you need to store it too

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>>1008259

Google something called a 'diode' they will help you charge your battery off the alternator w/o draining it when you turn it off. Alternatively you can use a bit of simple logic and use relays instead. And yes you can charge them externally but remember to use diodes on that shit too, you wire it wrong and your solar panels turn into resisters at night heating the sky from your batteries.

Use dc to dc voltage converters to power your shit instead of a lossy ass inverter.

Don't use batteries for heaters, they make indoor safe propane heaters use them instead. Also get a propane cooking range but ventilate that and don't use it as a heater its not as safe as pic related. Still get a CO detector. Remember that CO detectors fail after ~5 years and they fail bad by simply not detecting CO any more and give no warning, the test button still functions but the detector does not detect CO any more, when you get it wright on it the replace by date in big ugly lettering.

Fridge is a hard one, they make propane powered ones but they burn lots of propane. Go with a dc powered fridge and make sure its a compressor style pay more for a good brand, a lot of the cheaper ones recently use peltier junctions and they suck ass for efficiency.

>>1008433
http://jgdarden.com/batteryfaq/carfaq11.htm

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/lead_based_batteries

I can't find the source I used, but in another anon's thread (living in the wilderness or something) he was looking to live off-grid. Lead acid batteries are overwhelmingly NOT designed to be discharged significantly. Most lead-acid vehicle batteries are not designed to be drained below 5-10% (as in 90% remaining), at best. Deep cycle is something closer to 30, but I think you can get them down to like 50% if you want. The second link has some numbers on that.

>>1008259
All that shit you want to do is not "small". My battery bank is is a 12 volt 1064 Ah fork truck battery. It weighs total just under 500 lbs. I have 700 watts of solar and I still have a lot of shit i cant run. More solar would help. My array is undersized to the battery. Even still what you want can't be done at least not mobile and especially with weak small ass batteries like the marine one in the pic. A week long discharge time is a long ass time. You also cant go below 50% without damaging the batteries. Electric heat of any kind is out the window unless the engine is running. Solar will extend it but you will likely have an array smaller than 500 watts unless you get really efficient panels. You can do tablets, a dc fan, a small dc freezer or fridge, phones, maybe a ultra efficient laptop but not a gaming laptop on a sub 500 watt array and 4 golf cart batteries. The only tools you will be using is battery powered ones. AN inverter would have to be massive to power most motors in saws and drills (they can also damage it easily if they lock up). The starting surge is insanely high compared to the running power. If you get a big one you waste a ton of power in its self draw so you need a second small one for small stuff.

>>1009453
>>1009785

Thanks. I'm starting to see the problem here. That's why I came here. Aside from a generator, are there any other options worth exploring?

>>1010690
Batteries + solar + alternator (when needed) will work fine for shit like a laptop, led lighting and phone charger. A mini fridge is pushing it pretty hard not really feasible to run that off battery for 5 days in a mobile setup w/o going lithium ion or some shit and your electric heaters and shit are right out.

>>1010822
With some solar he could do a small dc fridge or freezer. They aint cheap though.
http://truckfridge.com/tf49.html
A small sundanzer would use less but it will be a chest unit.

>>1010856
I found a buddy a isotherm cr195 for 500 or 750 (can't remember) draws almost no power once it's cold. Its around 3-4Ah

>>1008446
try 1100 watts for 32oz Or 700 watts for a 16oz

learn thermos cooking. Very efficient

>>1010856
its far cheaper to use a normal chest freezer with thermostat as fridge. Use the money you saved for more inverters

>>1010885
if he is heating small amounts of water its fine but he would need a smaller heating element to avoid damaging the batteries with excessive discharge.
It takes 1 btu to heat 1 lb of water one degree. So lets say the water is 60 degrees. He wants to boil 20 oz. Thats 1.25 lbs. Thats 152 degree rise. 152 x 1.25=190 btus. Resistive heat is considered 100% efficient. A watt is 3.412 btus. So 190/ 3.412=55.68 watts to make a nice hot thermos of whatever. Just over 4 amps. With solar thats plenty doable with the sun out. He would just need to use something smaller. Like a dc immersion heater.

>>1010886
Inverters have self draw and are always on. They also waste power. Typical cheaper 12 volt inverters waste 12-15% of the power, higher end its 10%. So that chest fridge, the conversion uses around 200 watts a day or so. Now its 220 plus the self draw of the inverter. Something big enough to start the fridge, that means a larger more wasteful inverter, around 10 watts of self draw. thats 240 watts added. The freezer has already doubled in power and thats not counting the wasted heat if you use a modified sine wave, the motor will be warmer and less efficient. A sundanzer set to fridge temperatures can use less than 100 watts a day.

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>>1008259

>>1008259
dude run your fridge, stove and heater (energy hogs) off propane.

>>1013244
This guys speaking the truth.
Those items will kill your batteries in minutes.

Just readva story about a guy that lives permanently camping, boondocking on federal land.
Solar cells. Run your led lights and small electric on 6 volt. They even make little 9in tvs that will run on 6v.
Use the power inverter sparingly for 110v stuff but it will eat you batterys like you won't belive.
The propane route it the only way to really cook and keep a fridge running long term.
You've got to understand you're not going to live off a vehicle's 12v system and be able to function like you're still hooked up to the grid. The only thing a car battery is designed for is to start the vehicle. You leave any accessories running with the engine off the battery dies pretty quickly. The engine and alternator is powering the lights, radio AC ect.

Another thing to keep in mind is if its a small van and you go over the weight limit with 800 lbs of batterys + all your stuff, you can get your balls busted by being over your Gross vehicle weight. This is something that people who build their own campers pre plan for. You said you don't want to qualify as a mobile home but if you're not a mobile home then you legally have to go through the weigh stations.

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>>1008259
>I want the system to charge while the motor runs, but not drain the main battery
You'll want to use one of these, a battery isolator. My father installed one on his sailing ship. The ship has two batteries, one for the engine, and one for the ship's onboard lighting, radio, and appliances. The isolator allows you to completely drain the secondary one without using the engine's battery, while still charging the both of them when the engine is running or when you're connected to mains power from land.