Motorhome Features

Electrical System and Power

Our motorhome is 100% electric. Thats right there is no LP gas Hotwater service, we have solar instead! The same applies to the kitchen stove, it's not Gas, it's electric! Complete with oven and grill, this appliance guzzles the power, but we well provisioned for it in our solar array!

Solar Panels

We have 1 kilowatt of solar panels to supply our "Free" electricity needs, and to charge the house batteries. Our panels are mounted "flat" on the roof, however we have taken advantage of the slight curvature of the roof to ensure that 50% of our panels will attract the early morning or late afternoon sun. In addition, we have 2 smaller regulated 20 watt panels connected in series, providing 24 volts, just to make sure the engine starting batteries are in prime condition, even if we haven't started the engine for a few weeks.

Storage Batteries

The deep-cycle house batteries are arranged in 2 banks of 12 volts. That gives 1 bank of 400 AH for water-pumps, and other light current draw appliances, and a 2nd main bank of 600 AH to run the refridgeration for weeks if the sun doesn't shine! All banks can be interconnected if necessary, and loads swapped around. The exception are the 2 seperate engine starting batteries that provide the 24 volts necessary to crank up the huge 13 litre diesel.

Backup Generator

No buggerizing around here with piddly 850watt gensets. We go straight up 7KVA electric start diesel. This way we have enough power to run a welder when needed.

240 volt Inverters

The stove and hotwater have their own 1500w square-wave inverters! As the inverter is only running a heating element, it is not necessary to use a more expensive pure sine-wave inverter here. The cheaper inverters do have the potential to produce RFI and interfer with the television reception and make a few fluoros flicker, however this has not been a problem for us so far.

We have another 2 pure sine-wave inverters for general power use for appliances, the laptop etc etc. The 4 inverters spread our load, and in case one should "die", well we will not be cut short while camping out the back of Kikkagoatalong! We can order a replacement at our leisure, as the entire system can simply be reconfigured.

Lighting

All our house lighting is 12 volt, and 95% of that is LED lighting! The main living areas boast concealed lighting, all driven by 120cm LED strip-lights. LEDs are great - they draw low power, they are very reliable, but the downside is that they put out very little light in return. A single LED will provide very little light, however, get a bunch of them together and suddenly they become quite attractive. They are much dearer to purchase, but it's a damn sight better than trying to replace a blown fiddly little fluoro tube in the dark.

The strip-lights in the kitchen/dining/living area are spaced 10mm (1cm) apart. Thats right, there is an LED every 10mm apart, and they light up the room better than 3 x 20watt 12 volt fluoros! I know because we tried fluoros first. The usual current draw is around 1.9AH, so I don't really care if the lights stay on all night, as our batteries/solar can handle that.

The Stove Cooktop and Oven

How much do you need? If you are intending on doing most of your cooking outdoors, then you really only need the basics. However we wanted an Oven and Grill (Gotta have the grilled cheese on toast) so we settled for a 240v mini cooktop and oven combo. Simply race into K-Mart and grab one of these babies! You will need to modify the weak magnetic catch on the oven door, just for road travel to stop it swinging open.

Boasting a large and small cooktop element, the mini cooktop also sports a great griller, and an oven big enough for the batch of scones, a cake, or even the Sunday roast! The beauty of this little unit is that you can vary the temperatures of the elements, which naturally reduces the amount of watts consumed. Also you only need a 1500w elcheapo square or modified sine-wave inverter to run the thing from your batteries! Remember, this puppy is going to draw a good 100AH from your batteries as high heat settings, ie: If you have a 1200w element cooking for 30 mins, then thats about 50 Amps gone!

Our stove is backed up by a generator, which suits us well as running the gennie for half an hour to cook a meal also puts a good half hour or charge back into our batteries!

The Refridgeration

This is important stuff here! Nothing worse than a freezer failing with 2 weeks supply of good tucker gone bad. Particularly when you are 200 ks the other side of Kumbuckta Heights! Therefore we have 2 units, one is a dedicated freezer, and the other is used as a fridge. We also have an old trusty Fridge Mate down stairs that doubles as a "bar-fridge" when we are outside.

The 2 x 12volt Fridge and Freezer units are 80 litres in capacity each, and draw a total of 10AH when cranking! However, the Freezer is lucky to run for more than a few hours a day, and the duty cycle of the Fridge sees it off more than on, so all up we are only using about 32AH a day in summer. Not bad! Plus the 30 litre Fridge Mate down below runs direct off the vehicle batteries, so when driving it can run for as long as it likes!

Lower power consumption is possible with the use of chest type fridges. Remember, when you open the door the cold air doesnt fall out while you are making your mind up to what you wanted from the fridge! Also by having a dedicated freezer set to -20c, and only opening it say one every 2 days to get meat for defrosting, it stays cold and frozen longer.