Minivan Campers: Buying And Using Basic Simple Power

A YouTube Video Presentation can be found here; https://youtu.be/pqXTOLfjYKk

At the end of the article, you'll find a helpful Features List, and Power Budgeting Analogy.

Intro: People involved in minivan camper conversions find choosing a power systems confusing, and they are afraid they might buy a system that isn’t right for them. There’s a different approach that could make your power system decision, an easier one.

The Journey:

When it comes to your minivan camper conversion journey, a lot of people find power systems confusing to understand. Minivan camping has exploded in recent years. For tons of great reasons.

But so have portable power systems, they’ve exploded to. There are so many product options and applications – to make it worse, the advice on forums is "so all over the place". It’s dizzying to make sense of it all.

The average minivan camper conversions are very tight on space, so the solution that is most common is a compact portable solar generator, over a diy system that is less compact.

The bottom line is that people are afraid of buying the wrong things for their power needs, because advise and choices are so varied. What we can do, is simplify this all - by taking a less common approach.

Key Point 1 : Why The Common Approach Isnt Always The Best

A good number of people asking for small portable power systems advise, really don’t know how they work. Much of the advise given on forums are from people who assume the person asking, has a basic understanding. So, it’s not uncommon to see this gap between people looking for answers, and people giving advise.

When I say “understanding how solar generators work”, I'm not referring to the technical side of their components. I’m speaking to the user experience. I’m speaking to understanding “a day in the life” of using a small solar generator.

Advise on solar generators also varies because minivan campers, are a varied group. Some are weekenders, others are long term. Some drive a lot and explore everywhere, while others prefer parking it in solitude. Budgets vary. Levels of interest in electronics vary. Some see "minivanning" as an affordable step down from hotels, others see it as a step up from backpacking.

[Added note: Your minivan camping style impacts both your method of charging and using the unit. In example, if you drive a lot, you reduce the time a portable folding solar panel can be put out. If your more of a stationary camper, you can't solar charge in poor weather].

When I say “average minivanner", it’s a person looking for the most compact package at a lower cost, that meets minimal power needs. The most they are willing to spend for small scale portable power, is no more than $600 to $800. The best selling solar generators are either 300 or 500 watt sizes.

Some advice givers are people who have converted full size vans, that often have the space for a system much larger than 500 watts, not realizing the greater space limits of minivan camper builds. [Or, a person that just has a solar generator for home use, such as power during blackouts].

This space limitation is what makes small scale solar generators so popular with the minivan camper crowd. A common saying for people building campers from full size vans, is "that every inch counts". Well, in minivans, every inch matters even more. And as important, every dollar spent matters even more too.

Another knowledge gap piece comes in from people attracted to minivan camper builds that don’t have much experience in basic camping. They are trying to imagine living their usual routine living out of a vehicle as a downsized version of living in a conventional dwelling, because they don’t have personal experience as a reference point. [Vehicle dwelling is NOT like downsized home living. Having prior camping experience is very valuable].

The most common solar generator sizes for minivan campers are either 300 or 500 watt sizes. So, those two sizes are what I’ll be using as a baseline. For minivan campers that need more power than 500 Watts – lets say your electrical needs are above average for most minivan campers, you’ll either need to give up more interior space and money –or- adapt to lifestyle changes that rely on using less electricity.

Key Point 2 : Quickly understanding how small portable power systems work

A lot of what I see on public forums are people designing a minivan camper build, saying "I’ve watched a ton of YouTube videos, read a ton of blogs and forum posts – and I still don’t know what to buy to fill the portable power piece of the puzzle". Basically what they are saying is that despite all of the information, they still aren’t confident in their grasp of how small solar generator power systems work.

A good amount of confusion around solar generators is simply the learning curve in understanding the industry terminology, so in place of electrical terms I’ll use “time” as a basis. There are only two phases you’ll need to grasp: Power In Time / Power Out Time.

Lets set up a perfect world baseline to understanding these two phases and their shared dynamics using the two most common small scale solar generators used, a 300 watt, and a 500 watt. A perfect world would look like a perfectly clear sky on a sunny Summer day, with the simplest use scenario.

In the simplest scenario, during one full day, you’ll be fully charging your solar generator within 10 hours during daylight, and using power overnight, over the other 14 hours.

Here’s what “Power In Time” would look like:

What this simple graphic shows is most common ways to get power into a solar generator over the time involved for each method. If we start charging a solar generator at 7am for each method, a standard electric outlet fully charges the 300 Watt generator by 11am, and the 500 Watt by 3pm. Charging with a 100 watt solar panel is much slower, the 300 Watt unit would charge by 1pm, the 500 Watt by 5pm. Charging the unit from a 12volt outlet in a driving car is the slowest, the 300 Watt would charge by 2pm, the 500 Watt at 11pm (that would be driving nonstop for 16 hours).

For the Power Out phase after sundown:

The user will have 80% of a lithium based solar generator to use, since it’s not a good practice to drain the system of all of the power it holds. For a 300 Watt unit, that is 240 usable watts, and for a 500 Watt unit, that’s a usable 400 watts.

Lets say over the course of the night, you powered a phone and camera recharge, ran a light for two hours, ran a fan for eight hours. The next morning, your battery charge percent on the 300 watt unit would show 53% full, and on the 500 watt unit 72% full.

In the real world, there are quite a few things that can change that perfect world picture. They mostly circle around the environment, and how that effects solar charging. The perfect world specifications are created under controlled, optimal conditions. In the real world, things that affect solar energy collection are:

-anything less than perfectly clear skies (even a hardly noticeable hazy sky reduces sun energy)

-the season (as seasons change the length and intensity of daylight changes, and both solar panel efficiency and battery charging is impacted by temperature)

-your current geographic region (the amount of sun energy differs in various geographic environments)

-shading (any shading from any objects severely limits solar panel output)

-time of day (during dawn and dusk, sunlight energy is reduced as it travels through more of the earths atmosphere)

For the solar panel itself, things that impact it’s actual efficiency

-angle to the sun

-the quality of electrical connectors and wiring influence power moving from a solar panel into the solar generator

In real world solar generator use, capacity used everyday is, or should be, a fraction of the total, so it should be rare for someone to need to completely recharge the unit. We’ll cover more on that in a minute.

The faster charge time of the 300 is an appealing feature for many people. Today, the 500 is usually the upper limit because it’s the high side of the average budget, and the largest a 100watt solar panel can expect to fully charge within one day. (That could be changing fast with evolving technology).

Key Point 3 : A different approach to meeting your needs

The usual approach to sizing a small portable solar generator is to estimate power needs per day and use that total as a minimum solar generator size. You can find useful power use estimating tools online.

The problem with that top down approach is that estimates usually differ from real world use. Also, it doesn’t encourage finding ways to conserve electricity use. And often, people can get by with less than they think they need. In addition, buying what you can afford today, may not be all you wish for, but it’s better than an all or nothing choice.

The habits we have in using unlimited power when we are on grid, need a shift with using power off grid. We need to recalibrate to seeing power as a limited resource, and get accustomed to managing it’s use.

By stepping away from conventional online content and conversation, we can choose to focus on how a persons resources can point to a solution. More of a bottom up approach.

When designing a minivan camper conversion, for most people, portable power it isn’t a need. It’s more of a convenience feature, it’s purpose is to keep small electronic devices topped off with power. And, convenience features are usually ruled by these resources: Space, Time, and Money.

When that’s applied to small portable power systems, that means buying the unit you have room to store, that can be charged within one day, at or below the budget you have to spend. Then, you budget your power use, to the amount of power you can afford to spend, spread out over the actual time you anticipate between good weather charging days.

What this means to the average minivan camper today, is a solar generator and solar panel combination sized 500 watts or less, that fits into a space of a cubic foot or less, and costs under $800.

If a person finds in the future that they have the need, space and money resources to expand, they can buy a second unit, and use both of them. That also provides an advantage of a backup, having some power if one unit should fail. Also, somewhat recent are factory made and designed expansion battery packs intended for flexible future capacity upgrades.

I’m not going to point to any brands or models because the solar generator market keeps changing fast, and new companies, models, and improved features, are constantly evolving. Also, there never seems to be any shortage of online reviewers doing brand comparisons.

I hope this simple perspective, on an otherwise complicated topic, has been useful to you.

~Happy Camping~

Added Info:

For a method to charge much faster while driving, see this YouTube video from Hobotech:

https://youtu.be/_MnbfC88TBE

SoGen Features List:

While these may/or may not, be of interest to you, here are a few feature points when comparing brands and models of SoGens. Personally I feel the top four are very important today, and wouldn't consider a unit without them:

* UL Listed - this offers a degree of safety in how electronics are manufactured. Don't take for granted that a model your interested in has a UL approval.

* Regulated 12 Volt Output - some devices depend on this to run properly, such as mini-refrigerators.

* Pass-Through Charging - Allows using the unit while it is charging

* MPPT Charge Controller - these are much better than PWM type, which are outdated today. PWM types can still be found on cheaper SoGen units.

* A 60 watt USB C Output Port - some computers use this port for a best charging method.

* Folding Carry Handle - space saver

* Display Quality - Some SoGen displays offer more monitoring features than others. I like "the more the better", others may not care. One example of full featured displays are found on Goal Zero Yetti products.

SoGen Power Budgeting Analogy:

I'll also add an analogy that may be useful in budgeting SoGen power use. It may be helpful to compare it to rationing water. Lets say your camping, using a 3 gallon water container, and on average use 2 gallons per day. While you usually top off your water supply daily, if you see yourself being away from a water source for a day or two, you'll likely use practical methods to ration your supply. (perhaps not cooking water intensive things, like pasta - until you can resupply). That same thinking applies to SoGen power use. Let's say you have a day of rain forecast, and its obvious you cant top off your power with a portable folding solar panel, for that day. A practical budgeting of power use might be putting off recharging a drone battery. A person won't be flying a drone on a bad weather day anyway. Budgeting power use with a SoGen simply becomes second nature once you've become familiar with it.

Attributions:

pexels-los-muertos-crew-8866039 Photo by Los Muertos Crew: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-black-tank-top-and-black-shorts-handing-a-glass-of-water-to-the-man-sitting-outside-the-campervan-8866039/

pexels-teona-swift-6912818 Photo by Teona Swift: https://www.pexels.com/photo/unrecognizable-person-typing-on-laptop-6912818/

pexels-ketut-subiyanto-4126743 Photo by Ketut Subiyanto: https://www.pexels.com/photo/crop-person-making-notes-in-notepad-4126743/

electric outlet graphic: Designed by Macrovector; Freepic.com

Public domain graphics, no attribution required:

electronic elements, sun & moon graphic: all-free-download.com

electronic elements, van graphics: Vectorportal.com & Freepic.com