Electricity usage when stored/off road

We leave ours plugged in but only turn it on from time to time to keep the battery charged and have done so for many years with various vans. (The SP proved useless in winter.) 

We don’t normally heat the van, though. The only year we did, we then had mould develop.

What is the power consumption of your radiator and do you really need to heat the van, GAH?

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Even a mini oil-filled radiator will be about 500W so that is going to chew a fair bit of electricity if it is sat there all the time. My caravan used to sit unheated outside the house. I just plugged it in to cool the fridge and give the battery a boost 24 hours before a journey. I used to take the battery out and keep it in the garage and give it a boost with a bench charger every couple of months.

We have had a small electric oil radiator come on at night, otherwise nothing else. I would not have thought this would have consumed much electricity yet I have seen my electric charges almost double? Surely this cannot be simply down to the caravan? I've not used anything else of significance over the winter so I am under the impression that it can only be my caravan?

Depends on what temperature the heater is trying to maintain,

The small oil filled radiator we have is 600 watts. So if on constantly overnight would cost about £1 a night. So over a 3 month bill period around £90. However, if it has a thermostat like ours, and is only set on low it would probably not be on all the time. 

We don't heat our caravan by the way, as it is in storage. Obviously it is fully drained to avoid freezing damage and we have never had any damp problems. Personally I would not heat it during the winter, except perhaps prior to using it.

Our van is on a storage site,so no electricity available at all.But we do use the van all year, and at least every two weeks I "air" the van.I have never suffered from condensation,but I do leave the cupboard doors open so air can circulate.

I leave the battery in position,check with a meter,and remove and charge it at home when required.I do use a 20w solar panel as well.

This has served me well over the many years of being on a storage site.

Water systems are drained down as well.

TW, did you get to the bottom of the solar panel issue?

there have been loads of SP posts on the ASOC forum which might help, the main 'culprit' being the need to have the Sargent panel on to ensure smart charging, otherwise it defaults to leisure battery only...

the other main one was the latest ECU from Sargent drawing more power to run itself than came in from the panel.... 

i realise from your post that this isn't necessarily an issue with regard to the OP but may be of some use if you wanted to get to the bottom of it...

i assume you have the fitted 80w panel, if so this 'should' be more than enough to keep batteries charged even in winter time... my 100w one keeps three batteries up easily...

Yes, it is the 80w, BB. Both the vehicle and the leisure batteries went flat which suggests it wasn’t a Sargent related issue. We have researched it and I noticed you were on the AS forum.

We are sure the problem is due to the dull weather through winter coupled with the location where the van is parked. There is a high bank to the south of the van which provides a little too much shelter. Other than a major earth moving job, or moving house, there’s little we can do about that.

Once the days started brightening, the SP delivered 2-3amps which seems to bear out the theory.

It's been a simple job to use mains for charging now we know of the problem. If necessary, we can use the factory fitted battery isolator to preserve the charge in the vehicle battery.

Over the best part of 30 years I've stored my caravans out in the open without any heating and nothing has ever been ruined (except once when I forgot to drain the water prior to sub-zero temperatures and the boiler burst as a result). I just turn the heater on about 24 hours before I use the caravan and that's enough to clear any clamminess.

I left the motor home in storage for just over 4 weeks and the vehicle battery was too flat to start the engine. We have a solar panel which keeps the leisure battery charged to 13.5 Volts. I have noticed that the SP control unit has a second output for a vehicle battery.

Has any one got one of these wired to the vehicle battery?

The control unit website reports that the second output can be used for the vehicle battery, but it is a different type, the leisure battery is a Yuasa L36 AGM plus and the vehicle battery is a standard van starter battery, probably a normal sealed lead acid type.