How to thrive on a non 240v site!

just one moderate sized panel (say) 80w and a decent battery (90AH) should be more than sufficient to keep most vans in power.....in spring/summer/autumn.

yes, in the winter, with lower solar input and higher demand for lights, heating fans/pumps, and perhaps TV, its going to be harder work to manage without some form of electricity, but by no means impossible.

....and as panels and batteries get better (and lighter) the off grid season will be extended.....

not a generator fan myself, but i can see their usefulness in some situations.....high demand and low input.......if used considerately

Should we all start contacting the club to put out more information on solar power?  Just checked the "advice and training" section at the top of the page to see if there was any info on solar or off grid touring.  Not a sausage! There is a bit about using mains electricity and also using a generator.

This thread is a great place to suggest anyone asking about solar, but it is a bit to long winded for someone to take everything in at once.  A good succinct fact sheet is needed.

Over to you Merve?.

Would be very interesting to a lot of people I'm sure.Only on the Safefill bit at the moment as I don't think I can convince she who must be obeyed that we could do without leccy.

Mike

I quite agree with you and the time scale.  Even in the depths of winter a weekend isnt much of a challenge of ehu.  Regarding generators, I see fewer and fewer people using them as solar  power has become so much more affordable.

To be fair to the club they have published a couple of articles about off grid.  Trouble is most of them have been so superficial to be useless, written by the usual suspects who I suspect have never spent more than a weekend without the orange umbilical.  I particularly like the one which was illustrated a picture of a vintage caravan complete with range and kettle.  Inspired me I am going to rip out the Aspire II cooker and the Alde heating and install a log burner instead.

No I would suggest that you should be careful for what you wish for.

But it would be helpful if the advice and help factsheets contained up to the minute ideas rather than promote the dreaded generators.

@ atn MJ730 Do without Leccy what are you doing without?  In our case hairdryer and microwave.  Merve got that sorted even.  I choose not to.

True story:  Couple of weeks ago  we stayed just the weekend on a  nice commercial site near Nantwich. We get to the site around 6pm its got 16A electric so naturally I plug in and get on with my life ie open the first bottle of wine.  Fast forward to 8 30am Saturday morning I get up to make a cup of coffee using the electric kettle.  Realise after about 10 minutes nothing happening.  No big deal get gas kettle out makes coffee .  After a bit I realise that there may be a problem all the food in the Fridge has been warming up for the last 14 hours.  Tells my wife we most likely have fridge of sour milk and rotten meat.  She tells me not to worry, as she had forgotten we were on EHU so had put the Fridge on gas.  So not only did we survive being off ehu we hadn't even noticed . 

Also @ MJ730 I have gas curling tongs - and if its too cold to let my hair drip dry I have been known to dry it over the stove - but if a hairdryer is essential I would go to a EHU place every how often I need?  I can't think of anything else that can't be done off ehu!  My hand held mixer works on the inverter and so on. 

I missed Kevlon's post on the previous page - what more can anyone possibly need?

Don't forget that solar panels are not just for caravans/motorhomes ,I use them on my garden shed to power all my tools ,and it's all free 

Biggemac

I firmly believe that the club is uncomfortable with highlighting the benefits of Solar panals due to its vested interest in selling expensive, highly profitable club site pitches to its members. They try to justify the price by offering an all inclusive package which inevitably includes Electric Hookup. It has previously been suggested on the forum that the average daily cost of providing EHU to a caravan user is no more than £2. What I find interesting is that, if true, lots of profit is being generated by the club due to general ignorance by the members who's interests are supposed to be served by "their" club. What is the average price of a Non electric CL site? £6 or maybe £7? Now what is the average charge of a site providing EHU ? £12 -£14. Draw your own conclusion. Rip off Britain? My research shows that most French sites allow for optional use of EHU. The difference is around €3-4. As an experiment I contacted, at random, a number of CL sites asking if they offer discount for not using their EHU? Guess what? The answer in every instance?......No.

When we search the club website looking for a CL site that serves our preference whether being Dog friendly, hardstanding, coastal and many other atributes, we cannot search for a Non EHU site. To me, this is further proof that our interests are not being served. However, I have painstakingly created an excel spreadsheet highlighting all of the sites throughout the network that doesn't have EHU. I will gladly share it with my fellow members but isn't it a shame our club can't supply the same facility to its own fee paying members.