Much has changed in the world of touring over the past few years and one trend that is now becoming increasingly common is camping without using fossil fuels.
There is a clear and obvious need to decarbonise all areas of our life, and while you might not be fully prepared to invest in an electric campervan just yet, it’s not actually that difficult to dispense with fossil fuels when you’re on a campsite. And as the advert says, ‘every little helps’…
Of course, you could simply plug into an electric hook-up and not use the gas hob or heating system (especially if you have a system with electric blown-air heating), but what if you want to be entirely free from hook-ups for the ultimate freedom? After all, campervans do not need electric hook-up. Happily, there are plenty of great products out there that will allow you to do so without spending thousands on upgrades.
You do need to be aware of your energy consumption, though, and use any heavy power consumers with care. While things like LED lights sip energy and can be used without too much of a worry, items like inverters powering heating or cooking equipment are best used sparingly or on a separate power source, such as a battery bank.
So if you’re considering buying new products for use in your campervan, always check the label (on the base or the reverse) that shows the power they consume in watts.
The lower the wattage, the longer it can run off a battery, so pick the lowest-powered items that you can and avoid using domestic products in your leisure vehicle, for example, kettles, toasters and so on. Air fryers are usually fine.
The two fundamental building blocks to allow fossil-free off-grid campervanning are the battery bank and the solar array.
Big battery bank
Battery technology is really advancing at a rapid rate and now is the time to invest in a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4) battery. They have several benefits over traditional lead acid, gel and AGM batteries, the main one being that they are much lighter and more energy dense.
They can also be discharged more fully without issues, so their energy can be used more effficiently.
LiFePO4 batteries usually come with an inbuilt battery management system, making them adaptable to most charging systems. However, you will need to check your campervan has a suitable charging profile for lithium, to ensure that it is fully topped up.
Modern solar panel regulators will sort out this issue, though, so it might not be much of a problem.
Most modern lithium batteries also feature useful options like Bluetooth, allowing you to remotely monitor the battery’s voltage, drain time and charging current. This allows you to see in real time how long the battery will last before going flat – after all, you are going to want to avoid a flat motorhome battery.
If you are planning on using several high-powered devices – for example, inverters, coffee machines, hobs, air fryers or heaters – from your 12V supply, you’re going to need a large battery bank of at least 300Ah. If you don’t use any high-powered devices, a simple 100Ah battery might suffice.
The other alternative, which needs no extra wiring or fitting time, is to have one of the best portable power stations for van life (such as Ecoflow, Jackery and so on) and use that solely for high-powered devices such as an air fryer.
This also means you’ll never lose the basic motorhome functions, including the water pump, lighting and toilet flush, should the battery run down. No matter what battery capacity will suit your needs, having a large campervan solar panel (or panels) is the key to success off-grid.
Solar panels
A solar array is essential to having power when off-grid camping in the UK. Unlike some of the sunnier parts of Europe, where a smaller 100W solar panel might suffice, in the UK, duller days and shorter daylight hours mean that the panel will rarely operate at its maximum output all of the time.
To compensate for this, you need to go for the maximum output panel (or panels) that your roof type and payload will allow. A 300W panel working at 50% of its rated output (for example, on a cloudy day) will still produce the same amount of current as a 150W panel on a sunny day, compensating more effectively for less bright days.
The 400W panel fitted to my ’van replaced a 150W panel and has greatly increased the usability of the vehicle, producing up to 24A on sunnier days. It has gone from being a ‘slightly useful but only if it’s really sunny’ item to a properly essential bit of camping kit.
Getting 24A is a serious amount of current from the sun, resulting in less worry about using the coffee machine and inverter, because the solar panel can rapidly recharge the main lithium battery in between americanos.
The 150W panel would recharge the battery, but over a much longer period, limiting the number of times that high-current devices could be used.
Even if you don’t plan to use any high-current devices (such as heaters, cookers or inverters), it’s always best to have the largest solar array possible, because it will allow your vehicle to cope better with dull days.
Depending on your campervan, you might want to add several campervan solar panels. These can be wired in series (where the negative and positive terminals of the solar panels are connected together to increase the voltage) or in parallel, where the positive and negative terminals are kept separate.
There are pros and cons to each method, but crucially for campervan use, parallel wiring is the most tolerant to shading and the most commonly used on leisure vehicles.
Aluminium-framed solar panels with glass faces work more efficiently than the semi-flexible, thinner style of solar panels. From personal experience, I’ve had two semi-flexible units fail, while an older, cheap aluminium-framed panel is still working fine.
If you’re choosing between solar panel types, look for monocrystalline silicon panels (these appear pure black) rather than the older polycrystalline silicon (which have a blue speckled appearance). Monocrystalline models are more efficient.
All manner of newer generations of solar panels are coming to market – such as perovskite models with a claimed 27% efficiency – but these are still being developed, so monocrystalline is the current best option, and is reasonably priced and widely available.
With any solar panel, a charge regulator must be used. This manages the power output to ensure batteries are charged as efficiently as possible. Cheaper models are PWM types (Pulse Width Modulation), while slightly dearer ones use MPPT technology (Maximum Power Point Tracking).
I’d stick with MPPT, because they’re far more efficient and only slightly more expensive. If you have an older PWM solar regulator, upgrading to a newer MPPT model is an easy win, as they are up to 25% more efficient.
Solar panels are among the 20 campervan gadgets that I think could elevate any tour.
Battery-to-battery charger
Strictly speaking, a battery-to-battery (B2B) charger still relies on fossil fuels as a power source, so is less green than a large solar array.
B2B chargers such as the Ecoflow Alternator Charger work by using excess current from the engine alternator to supercharge a battery bank. In the context of this article, they are still ultimately powered by the engine’s fuel.
However, as you’re driving to the campsite in the first place, using a little fossil fuel is inevitable, so you might as well siphon off a little extra power to recharge your batteries en route. If you want to extend your ’van’s wild camping time free from a hook-up, they’re well worth considering.
Cooking
Traditionally, a gas hob was the go-to device for wild camping and extended off-grid periods, but with a raft of new, highly efficient cooking methods, this is no longer the case.
Starting with the hob, you might want to consider adding an induction hob plate. These handy standalone units can be powered off an inverter, or some of the newer models come with a built-in inverter for maximum ease of use. PortalZero offers efficient models rated at 1000W and is currently crowdfunding a standalone unit.
Campervan induction hobs are far more efficient than halogen hobs and heat up more rapidly, but they do need to be paired with pans with a ferromagnetic base (cast iron, enamelled steel or specialist stainless). Aluminium, copper, glass or thin steel pans won’t work on them.
In terms of a cooker, a traditional unit with a heating element takes too long to heat up and cook the food, so the best solution is an air fryer – and you can even find low wattage air fryers on the market.
These tend to be rated at around 1500W, but the speed at which they heat up and the short cooking times make them highly efficient and ideal for use in campervans.
They are a better option than even the best microwave for a campervan, as they offer more settings, grill food more efficiently and use less energy. So if you only have space for one cooking device, pick the air fryer. And yes, they can also do toast, so you won’t need a separate grill or toaster.
If you like coffee, a pod coffee machine is another item that works well paired with an inverter or a battery bank. Having tested Tassimo, Nespresso and Dolce Gusto machines, I think the Nespresso is the best for coffee (but only with Nespresso pods – the other types can be variable), while the Tassimo offers more versatility and is good for things like hot chocolate.
Whichever one you choose, pod machines heat the water rapidly and dispense the hot drinks in under two minutes, so even though they tend to consume about 1500W, the short duration means the energy hit on the batteries isn’t too bad.
However, there is a question mark about the eco credentials of pod coffee, so they’re not a very green product. But then neither are tea and non-pod coffee – it’s all imported…
One key point about using cooking gear is that if you can use it before the daylight goes, you will take less energy out of your batteries, because the solar panels will still be active. So eating slightly earlier – when it’s brighter – can extend your batteries’ run time.
Heating
Of all the power demands in a vehicle, the heating uses the most electricity. Unlike cooking, which has a much shorter duration, heating puts more demand on energy.
However, it’s something you’re going to need, especially if you’re after ways to keep a campervan warm in winter. As you tend to heat the ’van in the evenings up to bedtime, or perhaps even through the night, the duration is over a long period of time and all the energy has to come from the battery bank. Solar isn’t going to help at night and few people sit in their ’van with the heating on in the middle of the day!
So you’re going to need two things: a large battery bank and an efficient heating system. Least efficient is a fan heater. While the newer ceramic models output a fair amount of heat, you’ll need one rated at 1000-2000W to get any meaningful heat.
A 2000W appliance draws 166A out of a leisure battery – enough to flatten a 150Ah battery in under an hour.
Oil-filled radiators are more efficient, but still take a while to heat up and even a modest unit will need to be around 1000W to put out any reasonable heat. I’ve tested smaller 400W models to see if they work, but all they do is take off a bit of the chill, something to consider when choosing the best heater for a campervan. The interior won’t freeze, but you’ll likely still be shivering!
The other option for heating is to use smaller, low-current devices, such as an electric blanket. These typically use around 100W – about 10 times less than a low-powered fan heater – so greatly extend your batteries’ lifespan.
But what if you don’t want to go to bed? Well, the other option is to use a heated coat or gilet. These are powered by pocket-sized battery banks, which you charge up via your solar panel during the day, and are surprisingly effective. They run for several hours on their battery banks. But they’re a partial solution – they only warm your core, rather than pleasantly radiating heat around the whole vehicle.
Cooling
Habitation air-conditioning units are becoming increasingly popular, but again, these are large consumers of current that will need to be matched with a sizeable battery bank. They are best used on a mains hook-up.
If you are dead set on having air-con, the other option is to use an efficient standalone unit, such as the EcoFlow Wave, which can be powered by a battery bank to provide up to eight hours of air conditioning.
At £700, they’re not cheap, and you will need to plug them into a battery source (or pay £1200 for it to come with a battery base), but it’s a simple unit to pack and doesn’t require
any holes to be cut into the vehicle (although you do need to duct a hose out of a window). It also has a heating function, so is quite a useful device.
A more compact and cheaper option is a water-cooled fan system. These are essentially water-soaked filters that use a fan system to mist water vapour into the air. They’re not proper air conditioning, but they work better than a simple fan.
Firms like Totalcool sell posh ones for around £299, while you can also get generic unbranded ones online that simply plug into a USB port.
These cost under £30, use little energy and work well, especially when freshly filled with fridge-cooled water. But they’re not as good as proper air-con.
Verdict
It used to be quite difficult to stay off-grid and not use gas, but there is now a wide range of high-efficiency cooking and heating equipment available to let you camp guilt-free without consuming fossil fuels.
Some of them are better than their gas equivalents, too – in my opinion, an air fryer is better than the gas ovens fitted in some motorhomes.
Whether you want to invest in more solar panels or battery banks to go off-grid, or you simply want to plug into the mains hook-up, is up to you, but it’s never been easier to camp without burning extra fossil fuels.
After some more inspiration about the campervan lifestyle? Then head to our Go Campervanning: Campervan Life section for more great ideas!
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