Fredxx wrote:
Assuming they are like motorhomes:

Or in my case a boat


Lighting tends to be 12v LED these days.

Agreed.

Absolutely, just about all our boat lighting is now 12v LED, just a
couple of 'old favourite' mains lamps left which are used when we have
mains power.


Fridges 12 V when driving. Either mains or gas when actually pitched. We
favour mains, assuming it is available, but some say gas is more efficient.

Gas is now frowned up. There are few gas fridges any more. There are 12V
fridges but they command a premium. I went for an efficient fridge and
an inverter.

We also have a standard (and thus cheap) mains fridge with an
inverter. The price of 12 volt fridges is ridiculous.


Heating varies. Gas / Electric is common. Either a mix or one, depending
what you select. There are also diesel heaters.

We have gas heating, used to be diesel but since we have gas for
cooking anyway it made sense to use it for heating as well with a
'room sealed' heating unit.



Cooking tends to be mainly gas although having a microwave is common. Some
cookers have 2 gas rings and one electric one for when mains is available.

Hmm, I've not seen an electric oven apart from on a static. Microwaves,
definitely. If running from batteries it does require a modest inverter
and at least 2 x 110A batteries. 4 would be the norm on a boat.

We have a little built-in gas cooker from Thetford (brand, not place),
it has a gas oven, grill and three burners. It works well.


Id say most things, other than the high consumption devices, tend to run
of 12v - certainly in our case.

Solar panels are quite common.

Inverters are very current hungry. Do the sums for, say, 1kW at 12V and
think about the battery etc. People do use them but, if I need mains and
know I not going to have hook up, I take my generator.

Except few things take a constant 1kW. In the summer a solar panel can
keep up with a fridge power consumption. Some inverters are smart and
periodically sense a load. Ideal for fridges.

We have three 260 watt (i.e. standard UK domestic panels) on our boat
and they handle the fridge and a few more bits and pieces quite
happily with (large) batteries to keep things going overnight. Thus,
in the summer we can be quite independent and not need mains power.


Easily portable generators tend to be a few 100 watts. How big is yours?

We hav a 2kW (or is it 2.5kW) generator converted to run on LPG
(which, as I said we already have on the boat) but we needed it so
little on the boat that it's now back home.

--
Chris Green
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