One thing you always have to think about while living full time in a van is how much electricity you use. Depending on how much you use, how much batteries you have and how and when you charge them you’ll have to find a good balance that won’t drain your batteries.
We can charge our batteries in three different ways:
- 800w of solar panels and a 60A Renogy MPPT charge controller.
- 40A Renogy DC-DC charger while we drive.
- A portable battery charger that we can connect to a 220v outlet.
I think it’s important to have more than one way to charge your batteries, especially if you’re planning to live in your van full time.
Solar panels
Solar panels are a great way to charge your batteries, but if you like us live in a country with few hours of sun during the winter, or know that you’ll spend most of your time in shadow, then you might want to look into another way to charge your batteries those days, weeks or months.
DC-DC charger
We charge our batteries with our DC-DC charger almost every time we drive somewhere during the winter since that’s pretty much the only way we’ll get any power. That can be kind of a pain in the ass though since we need to drive for at least an hour t get enough juice in the batteries for it to be worth the drive. And let’s face it, most of the time we just don’t want to drive that far every day.
220v battery charger
The third option is to use our 220v battery charger. This is the way we charge our batteries when we’re connected to shore power.
So far, it’s been absolutely necessary for us to have all three options for charging, especially during the last part of the build when we lived at my parent’s house and didn’t drive a lot, but still wanted to be able to use electricity in the van.
Do you want to read more about our electrical system? Check out more posts in this category here!
These are the chargers that we use:
