Am I a dinosaur?

Reading motorhome forums, it seems that everyone is changing to Lithium leisure batteries. AND they have installed a roof full of solar panels a few years ago. 20A or more  chargers seem to be an absolute necessity.

We are still operating with a flooded lead acid battery, but we have fitted a small 40W solar panel under the skylight. We connect up our 5A battery charger if we think we may be having a hook up.

Lithium batteries come with a long guarantee, typically 10 years so they must last much longer than a standard lead acid battery.  I find that lead acids last 3-4 years before there capacity drops to lower than our requirements,  although they would probably last a further 2-3 years if we used EHU on a regular basis. So I am shelling out around £100 every 3-4 years. A lithium battery would cost me around £5-600 maybe every 10 - 12 years, although no one has had one for that length of time yet. 

Lithium batteries have a much higher capacity  than lead acids. A Lithium battery typically is 2-300 Ah and can be discharged by 85%. Lead acids are around 100Ah and should not be discharged more than 50%. We use around 7Ah per day but the 40W solar panel provides 50-100% of that. We don't need more capacity, or more solar power.

Our 5Ah battery charger would easily top up the battery overnight even if we had run it down to 50% somehow.

Problems with newer "more advanced" vans seem to arise from:-

• the dissimilar batteries used for the vehicle battery and the leisure battery and the ensuing charging problems. This is usually addressed by fitting a step up dc-dc converter at around £150
  
• the complex power management systems used
• the complex solar power controllers used
  
• the power taken from the battery to run the gas heating
• the power taken from the battery to run the fridge
• the reliance on inverters to run mains powered items.

Our van is spared the issues of heating and the fridge by Autosleepers choice of items. I see no reason to change them.

The original power management system is another matter. It was horrible. False modesty aside, my simple system is much better, and I suspect better than the commercial offerings.

Our little solar panel charges the similar (currently identical) vehicle and leisure battery with no controller at all in the winter,  and a very basic controller in the summer. 

We don't tend to use mains powered items. Our phones, tablets  and computer use 12v usb car adaptors

As an engineer I find the discussions quite interesting and educational. But I am not tempted to change.

So maybe I am a dinosaur, but a happy one. 

Wipers and Cracked Windscreen

 While the van was in the garage for its MOT, Ian, the mechanic, said that he had seen the same intermittent behaviour from the wipers.  I was glad. So often intermittent faults "go away" when the vehicle is in to get repaired, and come back again when it comes out.

So a new motor and washer were fitted.

I went to pick up the van at the garage but Ian explained apologetically that he had managed to crack my windscreen. It was a crack about a foot long.  He immediately said that he would pay the excess for the insurance repair.

I informed my insurance company who told me to book it in with Autoglass. Four days later, they came to the garage and replaced it.

Wipers and washers now working fine.  I have removed the fuse from the solar controller so the batteries will get a boost every time the sun shines - not often this time of the year.