Lighting your home with your California

[Amarillo]

With power cuts possible this winter, how can we light our home with our California, its rooftop solar panels and its leisure battery?

I already have an live external 12v Anderson connector wired to within the awning casing. So all I need to do is run a cable from the van into our home and plug in our 12v driveaway awning lights.

Putin - bring it on. The Amarillo family are ready!

 

[Maxx]

Rechargeable camping lights are the ticket…

 

[kurienp]

.. or just sleep in the van? Ensure that your leisure batteries have enough life left in them ...

 

[Ch1pbutty]

+ Install solar panels & battery in your home.

Cook on a charcoal Kamado oven in the garden : portable gas stove in the kitchen.

Heating from a wood burner.

Hot water from the immersion heater.

Electric Boiler tap for the kettle.

 

[soulstyledevon]

The Cali batteries wouldn’t last 5 minutes powering a home.
The new ID Buzz with its bi-directional charging could be very useful. 77kWh sitting on the drive ready for use…

 

[kurienp]

The Cali batteries wouldn’t last 5 minutes powering a home.
The new ID Buzz with its bi-directional charging could be very useful. 77kWh sitting on the drive ready for use…

seriously thinking about the Buzz to replace my current electric car.

 

[Perfectos]

Mpowered Luci lights: These work great I hang mine from the existing light fitting to illuminate the whole room, recharge next day by hanging out the fan light window pointing directly at the sun (hang from the window handle so the solar unit is outside & gets direct sunlight unfiltered, through the window)

There are two light versions, colour & White, the white version has three brightness settings unlike the colour version

works a treat in the home

 

[CaliOuters]

+ Install solar panels & battery in your home.

Cook on a charcoal Kamado oven in the garden : portable gas stove in the kitchen.

Heating from a wood burner.

Hot water from the immersion heater.

Electric Boiler tap for the kettle.

Having just been through the process the thing I found surprising was that most home battery systems do not allow you to operate from them in the event of a power cut. This is because they are not isolated from the power grid. If they were allowed to operate they can electrify the local grid causing lines to be live and endangering anyone working on those lines. For this reason in the event of power loss they shut down.

The only exception from this I was able to find was the Tesla Power wall, this is able to operate behind their propitiatory "gateway" which isolates the battery from the grid in the event of a loss of power, the only reason the user will notice it is through a notification the a phone telling them they have lost power and are operating from the battery.

 

[The Tall Luthier]

Bring the candles in from the van

Light them

Sorted.

 

[Amarillo]

I’m currently away from home, but when I get back I’m going to work out how much of our home we can light with the campervan aux battery and bits we have. Kitchen, living room, stairwell and a bathroom are the absolute minimum.

Bedrooms can be lit by torch at bedtime and getting up time.

It would be nice if we can do it without spending any money, but I expect we’ll need some extension leads.

 

[sidepod]

Get a grip! Just get sone rechargeable lamps. The cables you’d need to overcome voltdrop would be ridiculous.

 

[Amarillo]

Get a grip! Just get sone rechargeable lamps. The cables you’d need to overcome voltdrop would be ridiculous.

I already have a 5m and a 2m thick shotgun extension cables to allow the fridge to be powered in the awning, and a fridge is far more sensitive to power drop than 12v LEDs.

 

[G3WRT]

With power cuts possible this winter, how can we light our home with our California, its rooftop solar panels and its leisure battery?

I already have an live external 12v Anderson connector wired to within the awning casing. So all I need to do is run a cable from the van into our home and plug in our 12v driveaway awning lights.

Putin - bring it on. The Amarillo family are ready!

For me the ticket has been usb charged lithium battery torches. Good for going to bed up the stairs and in the bedroom. Much cheaper and sensible than thinking about powering a whole house! The torches are really cheap and really effective. Having one in the 6.1 is a must for me plus a charging usb cable.

 

[Alistair Hardy]

With power cuts possible this winter, how can we light our home with our California, its rooftop solar panels and its leisure battery?

I already have an live external 12v Anderson connector wired to within the awning casing. So all I need to do is run a cable from the van into our home and plug in our 12v driveaway awning lights.

Putin - bring it on. The Amarillo family are ready!

Oh dear oh dear!

 

[Hawthorn37]

.. or just sleep in the van? Ensure that your leisure batteries have enough life left in them ...

Agree - a great excuse to go camping - even if it’s on the drive !

 

[Hawthorn37]

Here’s a mad thought. As Cali owners (and Motorhome owners, to be inclusive) we are in a slightly privileged position of being self sufficient for heating and light, and cooking, wherever we like, so long as we can get diesel. If the doom-mongers are proved right, and we do get power cuts, there will be many older folks that could be badly off. So, what do people think about using your Cali as a mobile heat hub, with tea and bickies? Rash or reasonable?

 

[Kayleigh]

Agree - a great excuse to go camping - even if it’s on the drive !

Yes with a choice of staying in a cosy California with light, heat, cooker and fridge, or your cold dark home during power cuts, there is only one winner surely