New conversion power solution

[AlR]

Hi,
I'm currently planning out my first camper van. It's a T6 conversion and need to resolve the simplest way (and the most cost effective way) of powering everything.
We are looking to power LED lights, a number of USB ports (at least one USB-C - to charge a laptop), a 12v fridge, a diesel heater, and an air fryer. It would also be nice to be able to power a hair dryer.

Most of the time we will probably be using the van on camp sites with a power hook-up, but there will be times when a hook-up will not be available.

I've been looking though the forum (and on other sites, for information) and I seem to be going around in circles.
Any guidance would be appreciated
Thanks

 

[Deaky]

Forget the air fryer and hair dryer unless you want to spend thousands.

 

[Bav]

Both an air fryer and a hair dryer are 230v appliances and both are probably rated at around 2kw - so you'd need a decent invertor and a large capacity battery bank. Doable, but as @Deaky says, it won't come cheap.

 

[AlR]

Hi guys, thanks for the input.
I’ll have to do more investigations and work out what the options will cost.

If being able to run 230v appliances, like an air fryer, is expensive but within my overall budget (even if I have to stretch it a bit), I would rather do that, than go for a lower cost option and end up having to change it in the future

 

[CJW]

What about making a system where the fryer and dryer work through mains hookup and the rest off a leisure battery? That would be a far more reasonable cost.

The rest is easy enough, just be careful with the USB-C as it can draw quite a few amps.

 

[roadtripper]

It's not just the cost you need to consider, the fryer/dryer devices you want to run use a huge amount more power than the other devices you mention.

Even if you spend the money on the high capacity batteries and inverters to do that is the use of your van such that you are going to be driving for 6 hours the next day to recharge them?

To put some rough numbers around it a 2kW fryer is going to be pulling around 180 amps on the 12v side. The only load like that otherwise is the starter motor, that's going to take serious cabling, fusing, connectors and cooling. You'll probably need a parallel battery system because it's beyond the current capabilities of a single battery. Running that for half an hour will use the complete capacity of a normal 100ah region battery, and is likely to take 2-3 hours of engine running to put back.

It's possible but you are going to have to dedicate a lot of your budget and your space just for the ability to run a single large cooking load occasionally off grid. Be really sure that's key to your use of the van.

If you want to be gas free and use electric cooking a far more practical route is to use a variable wattage induction hob that can run full tilt on EHU but run at a few hundred watts occasionally off a decent mid range inverter.

 

[Bav]

If you're serious about off-grid camping, a decent solar setup is essential. You might also want (need) to consider fitting a high-output alternator and running dual DC-DC chargers. Even if you're prepared to swallow the added cost & complexity of such a set-up, frequent off-grid use of an air fryer would still be "ambitious" IMO.

We have a decent off-grid set-up in our van and use an induction hob and a boiling-water tap. The setup works very well when the sun is shining and/or we're doing a modest amount of touring, but it cost an absolute fortune. If we ever see a ROI, it won't be until we've wild-camped for a few 100 nights or we've gone without EHU at a campsite for 1000s of nights.

 

[AlR]

Thanks for your guidance.
I think I'm going to go for a 'conventional' 12v setup and a hook-up, to keep things simple.
The extra cost, complexity and as road tripper pointed out, the re-charging time, make the air fryer a step to far at the moment.

I think I will monitor the pricing and technology in the power generators/stations that are becoming more widely available. Maybe one of those just for the AC devices, when off grid, will be the 'answer' - without risking running out of power in the van.

Thanks

 

[roadtripper]

I did think of suggesting one of the stand alone systems as they have other uses, but it would still be a large expensive one.

I would suggest instead investing in a good quality modern LiFePo based system with a DC-DC charger that is capable of taking solar charge. That would be a good base to build on that will hold twice the energy in the same space as a lead code based system, you could add solar panels later if you find you do a lot of off grid.