{"id":916,"date":"2021-03-22T19:18:41","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T19:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/?p=916"},"modified":"2021-03-24T15:24:10","modified_gmt":"2021-03-24T15:24:10","slug":"how-do-we-charge-our-batteries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/?p=916","title":{"rendered":"How do we charge our batteries?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"682\" src=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875-1024x682.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1002\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/6AB8BFF8-A8A2-49F6-8911-7365003D0035-514-0000002BA0E5D875.jpg 1184w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>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&#8217;ll have to find a good balance that won&#8217;t drain your batteries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can charge our batteries in three different ways:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol><li><strong>800w of solar panels and a 60A Renogy MPPT charge controller.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>40A Renogy DC-DC charger while we drive.<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>A portable battery charger that we can connect to a 220v outlet. <\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>I think it&#8217;s important to have more than one way to charge your batteries, especially if you&#8217;re planning to live in your van full time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>Solar panels<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>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&#8217;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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>DC-DC charger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>We charge our batteries with our DC-DC charger almost every time we drive somewhere during the winter since that&#8217;s pretty much the only way we&#8217;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&#8217;s face it, most of the time we just don&#8217;t want to drive that far every day. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2>220v battery charger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The third option is to use our 220v battery charger. This is the way we charge our batteries when we&#8217;re connected to shore power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So far, it&#8217;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&#8217;s house and didn&#8217;t drive a lot, but still wanted to be able to use electricity in the van. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/?cat=7\"><strong>Do you want to read more about our electrical system? Check out more posts in this category here!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the chargers that we use: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3rTdPlO\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"837\" height=\"602\" src=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/51XQLtpXU9L._AC_SL1000_.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-825\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/51XQLtpXU9L._AC_SL1000_.jpg 837w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/51XQLtpXU9L._AC_SL1000_-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/51XQLtpXU9L._AC_SL1000_-768x552.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 837px) 100vw, 837px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3rTdPlO\">40A DC-DC Charger<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/30JvJvi\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" src=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-161\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600.png 1000w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600-768x768.png 768w, https:\/\/jacobandandy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/s-l1600-150x150.png 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/30JvJvi\">60A MPPT Charge controller<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;ll have to find a good balance that won&#8217;t drain your batteries. We can charge our [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,5],"tags":[116,117,115,118,113,112,114,110,111,109],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.5.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How do we charge our batteries? - Jacob And Andy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this post I tell you about the different ways we can charge our batteries. 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