How long will your power last?
Pick your power system, slide in what you would run on a typical day, and see how long the battery lasts and how quickly sun, driving and hook-up put it back.
1Your setup
The Clayton LPS II 2000 is fitted as standard. The other two are upgrades.
Solar panel on the roof
2What are you running?
Start from a typical day, then drag any slider. Everything is per day.
3Putting power back in
Three ways to charge. Set the weather and how far you drive.
Bright
Solar
RainOvercastMixedBrightClear
-charge rate in daylight
-back in per day
Driving
The engine charges the leisure battery as you drive.
-
-charge rate while driving
-back in per day
Hook-up
-charge rate on mains
-empty to full
Plugged in at a campsite, the van runs from the mains and the battery tops itself up.
Three systems, your day
The same appliances and charging you set above, run on each system we fit.
How we worked this out
- These are estimates to help you choose, not a guarantee. Real use varies with temperature, how often the fridge is opened, the age of the battery and where you park.
- Battery, inverter and charging figures for the Clayton LPS II come from Clayton Power's published specifications: 1,050 Wh usable (LPS II 2000) and 1,900 Wh usable (LPS II 3000), a 45 A charger from the engine, up to 400 W of solar and about 750 W from mains.
- The headline figure is the van parked up: battery plus solar, with no driving. Solar is the same for all three systems, so they compare like for like. Driving is shown separately because the systems charge from the engine at different rates.
- 230V power is the rated output: 2,000 W (LPS II 2000) and 3,000 W (LPS II 3000), with surges to 4,000 W and 5,000 W for starting appliances. Clayton rates these for up to 10 minutes at a time, with 1,500 W and 2,300 W available continuously.
- Zeliox Neo 4000 figures come from Eberspächer's data sheet: 2.4 kWh, 48 V, 4,000 W continuous. Eberspächer gives charge times, not rates, so the driving and mains rates shown are worked back from those times. We have used the full 2.4 kWh as no separate usable figure is published.
- Appliance wattages are typical values, and appliances on the 230V sockets include a 10% allowance for inverter losses. The lights figure is with everything on at 66% brightness. The fridge is rated at 28 W and is assumed to run about 40% of the time (more in hot weather).
- Solar output assumes a flat panel on the roof: roughly 75% of its rating in clear summer sun, down to under 10% in rain. Useful daylight is taken as 6 hours in summer, 4 in spring and autumn, and 1.5 in winter.