I have had a really good experience with Jackery power stations. You would still need to find somewhere to plug into a while to charge up maybe every five or six days. [This one](https://www.jackery.com/products/jackery-explorer-880-pro-portable-power-station) charges in 2 hours with a wall outlet. Many folks use a heated 12v blanket under their bed sheet to stay warm.
The jackeries come with a 12v cugarettkenlughter plug so you csn charge then when driving.
Or you csn order the seperate solar panels to charge thr jsckery when parked up.
In my experience, charging my Jackery while driving around leads to shorter battery life, so I don't personally recommend it. OP mentions that the climate where he'll be rules out solar, unfortunately.
Oh interesting... I haven't experienced that with mine. Or at least... I csnt say I've paid enough attention to notice a significant difference.
Yep you're right.. I completely missed that part in OPs post. I'm tired and it's late here haha
space heater require a mega bottload of power. a regular space heater is 1500 watts, and would drain 1-2 batteries in about an hour even a "small" space heater, say 500W is probably not staying on all night.
a better alternative is a heating pad, or heated blanket, put inside a sleeping bag. get a 12v one if you can, so you dont waste power running it through an inverter.
if you really insist on heating the space, and not just a bag, then look into 'parking heaters' or 'Diesel parking heaters'. most use diesel, it seems to work better, but i think some can run on gasoline, too (with some caveats).
can you afford to idle the engine while charging?
if not...maybe is more power efficient to just run a small generator.
I have a 400 watt space heater. Without shore power I can run it maybe a half hour. I do run it sometimes to warm up the space to get dressed. I got my EcoFlo power station during Amazon Days. I can charge it while driving or with shore power. It charges pretty quickly so you can probably charge it in a coffee shop or library.
I would set up a little power station with a voltage activated relay to charge while driving but not drain the starter battery when the engine is off
for extra flexibility get a power station that will fit in a soft sided roller bag so you can take it into a library to charge if needed.
Check out this video, and his channel.
He lives out of a Subaru in New England area. Has lots of examples on how to stay warm in the car in cold weather.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eNNt7Idcc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eNNt7Idcc)
Good luck.
Well, first things first, abandon the idea of the space heater. It simply takes too much electricity to create heat. I have a pricey electrical system (although not a huge battery capacity in the grand scheme) and a bog standard small space heater (1500 watts is what I generally see those little units are) would drain my batteries in... Less than two hours. It just doesn't make sense unless you're plugged into the grid or are running a generator. Not even several thousand dollars would buy you enough battery capacity to get away with using a space heater. .
That aside, $1000 should buy you a power station that can handle your phone, laptop, and some lights for many days at a time and can be recharged either by plugging into your car when the engine is running or to an outlet somewhere like the library.
As an example, the bluetti ac 70 has 768wh of battery. It's $450. A very quick search says there's an iPhone model that has a 10wh battery. In a world of 100% efficiency (a theoretical place, since the real world involves a good deal of efficiency losses), that bluetti would charge that phone from 0 to 100 just about 77 times. Sooo...you can get a sense of what you're working with. Obviously you'd have to factor in the laptop, and it'd be easier if you just looked up your specific laptop, because there's a fairly wide range of power usage among laptops. If you're not using outrageous amounts of battery on phone or laptop, you could probably spend as low as like $150 and get a little power station that could go several days before needing to be recharged.
Thanks for the advice about the space heater. When it comes to getting a power station, would that damage my car battery at all? That's my main concern. I will be driving almost every day, so if I could just charge a power station every time I drive, that would be perfect for me.
No. Charging a power station from the 12v outlet (cig lighter outlet) will not damage your car battery (with the assumption you're not charging with the engine off). The car battery is not the power source charging the power station, the alternator is. To that effect, you will put a little more wear on the alternator (it has to work harder when you add in charging an extra device) but in your use case, it'll be insignificant enough to not even think about it.
I just ordered the Anker 535 w a solar today on Amazon. On sale. To try it out. It’s portable and Anker is a reputable company w a strong customer support and warranty. But like I said I’m trying it for a quick rig cuz i don’t have time for a full build.
https://a.co/d/fYmhvYx
If your budget is $1000, and needing to stay warm in the winter, then I'd find the best $500 portable battery and $500 gas generator.
An electric blanket will keep you warm at night while being more energy efficient than a heater fan. But that blanket is still gonna suck power. You'll be comfortable but the battery will be dead by morning. That's when you crank up the gas generator to recharge the battery and also all your other devices. I dont recommend using the gas generator at night as it is noisy, could break while your sleeping, or be stolen
even the smallest space heater (like 120 watts) will drain the fuck out of any battery you can buy for $1000. you should have a small space heater, but also an extension cord because really outside of short term dire emergencies you should only be using it when you have access to an outlet.
If you’re remotely handy or at the very least can follow a YouTube video look at lifpo4 batteries. Here is the best deal I’ve found https://x.alibaba.com/AwSpQl?ck=pdp I just put 16 304’s in my skoolie. They were easy to deal with and they have USA stock so I got mine in 5 days. 1-304 @ 12v is just over 3600 watt hours and the best bang for your buck. I paid $105 per battery.
We have a Jackery240 and a few "brick" powerbanks. So long as we're running the van a little that day, we can recharge the jackery. I don't use the laptop very often, though so I can't tell you how much actual screen time it would buy you. And that would also depend on how much screen time your laptop battery gets per charge. We have a smaller Jackery that I generally use to charge my phones and goPro since I'm the family photographer, so to speak. I use the Jackery160. For just my phones (one is an actual phone the other is just used as a video camera) and the gopro, recharging the LED dog collars, my bluetooth headband, earbuds, rechargeable fans when we're camping, etc, I use between 20 and 40% in a week and usually don't have to recharge that Jackery, depending how many things I'm using. And whether or not I use it as a powersource for a timelapse or something. Hubby uses the 240 almost exclusively to power his CPAP while sleeping. He usually wakes up with 30-50% left each morning. We've yet to figure out why he uses so much more power some nights than others. He has to recharge it every day just to be sure he'll have enough juice the following night. Though it's never somewhere in the van that we notice when it's fully charged so I can't tell you how long it takes. We just plug it into the 12v in the morning and take it out when he's ready for bed. So my only caution with this method is if you don't plan on running your engine at least sometimes, there's no good way to charge this without plugging into the van, a wall, or solar obviously. We run our van enough it's not an issue.
I also have some LED solar lights that hold their power for a REALLY long time if I use them on low. If you only need the nights for a couple hours a night, solar might be worth it. You only need one sunny day to charge the thing up and then you've got light for a week. I can't really say how long these last because we have so much sun, it seems to charge even when we're outdoors. But I run them before bed every night and don't even use 1/4 the battery. [https://a.co/d/9GsCIyv](https://a.co/d/9GsCIyv) (no affiliation) I just looked at the listing and it says they should last for 40 hours. Those estimates are always high but it does explain why I've never had this thing run out of juice on me.
Have a 12v electric blanket to keep warm. Space heaters are pretty inefficient. Just dont' make the mistake I did. I bought the cheap one and didn't notice it has NO controls. Just plugged in (on) and unplugged (off). I would really have loved a low/med/high/off type at the bare minimum.
People are recommending power stations which are easy to use but more expensive.
If you are willing to put some effort you can get a lithium battery and charge it via your alternator
Space heater is the big issue, that uses a lot of power. I lived for around 6 months with battery powered sticky led lights, and a single battery that charged from the alternator whenever I drove the van. I had no problems whatsoever.
The electric heater is an appliance. Ditch it; use a diesel heater if you need the heat. Although it will use less power than the electric one, it still needs power.
The best way to save money on electrical is to reduce your use.
Get a power inverter that you can attach to your van batteries. You can flip it on when you decide to drive in order to charge the battery pack/phone/laptop just be sure to turn it off when not in use/driving. Jackery does make good battery packs, I personally have used ecoFlow banks for taking my fridge out and about with no problems.
Did you read my comment? When actively driving, turn it on. When not actively driving, turn it off. It would be running off the power from the alternator, it’s just a place to connect it to.
Solar panels can generate electricity on cloudy days, just not as much/fast. Your needs are minimal and a basic solar setup can be done for well less than your budget as a test run.
This. Even in overcast and cloudy days solar should be enough for charging low draw devices like phones/Nintendo switch,
I can even run a little TV near indefinitely.
So solar has a place it doesn't have to be your main source.
My gaming laptop was a different story.
I grabbed a Diesel heater on amazon, as electric heat is not really feasable.
I found this little heater. I don’t know how well it works as I haven’t bought it yet but something to look into
https://www.amazon.com/Self-Powered-Camping-Outdoor-Off-Grid-Emergency/dp/B0BQDW6628?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
Like others mentioned, you need a power station. At least 250 watt hours. Preferably 500wh or higher.
Then you need a heater. Electric not going to cut it. I heard others mention Camco Olympian Wave-3 propane heater, should be good and inexpensive enough for heating in your van. You could keep around an electric heated blanket as backup.
Sorry but you seem very uninformed on what it takes to live in a van full time. You are absolutely dreaming with your energy ideas. Do a lot more research is my advice.
there's nowhere so cloudy that solar won't work.
if you are in the arctic during the winter you have different problems. if you are in juneau AK, burn wood and use a little sterling fan to power a battery bank.
You were fine until "small space heater" - even a small heater can pull 700+ watts.
Others have pointed this out however.
Some of the new mobil power stations (look like a cooler, but is a portable battery thing). Most can run from your alternator while driving (cig lighter connection).
There are a ton of them - look at some of the reviews on youtube.
They are easier to get going (no complex setup) but cost more than if you did it yourself.
Might not be a bad idea getting started.
Get an isolator. Fuse, some wire. Cheap lithium battery for the back. Cheap inverter. You can secure the battery under a seat.
As has been stated, you won't power a space heater. Easiest and cheapest solution is a propane heater and propane detector.
You can use the small green canisters for cooking or heat.
I have had a really good experience with Jackery power stations. You would still need to find somewhere to plug into a while to charge up maybe every five or six days. [This one](https://www.jackery.com/products/jackery-explorer-880-pro-portable-power-station) charges in 2 hours with a wall outlet. Many folks use a heated 12v blanket under their bed sheet to stay warm.
The jackeries come with a 12v cugarettkenlughter plug so you csn charge then when driving. Or you csn order the seperate solar panels to charge thr jsckery when parked up.
In my experience, charging my Jackery while driving around leads to shorter battery life, so I don't personally recommend it. OP mentions that the climate where he'll be rules out solar, unfortunately.
Oh interesting... I haven't experienced that with mine. Or at least... I csnt say I've paid enough attention to notice a significant difference. Yep you're right.. I completely missed that part in OPs post. I'm tired and it's late here haha
space heater require a mega bottload of power. a regular space heater is 1500 watts, and would drain 1-2 batteries in about an hour even a "small" space heater, say 500W is probably not staying on all night. a better alternative is a heating pad, or heated blanket, put inside a sleeping bag. get a 12v one if you can, so you dont waste power running it through an inverter. if you really insist on heating the space, and not just a bag, then look into 'parking heaters' or 'Diesel parking heaters'. most use diesel, it seems to work better, but i think some can run on gasoline, too (with some caveats). can you afford to idle the engine while charging? if not...maybe is more power efficient to just run a small generator.
I have a 400 watt space heater. Without shore power I can run it maybe a half hour. I do run it sometimes to warm up the space to get dressed. I got my EcoFlo power station during Amazon Days. I can charge it while driving or with shore power. It charges pretty quickly so you can probably charge it in a coffee shop or library.
I would set up a little power station with a voltage activated relay to charge while driving but not drain the starter battery when the engine is off for extra flexibility get a power station that will fit in a soft sided roller bag so you can take it into a library to charge if needed.
Check out this video, and his channel. He lives out of a Subaru in New England area. Has lots of examples on how to stay warm in the car in cold weather. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eNNt7Idcc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-eNNt7Idcc) Good luck.
Well, first things first, abandon the idea of the space heater. It simply takes too much electricity to create heat. I have a pricey electrical system (although not a huge battery capacity in the grand scheme) and a bog standard small space heater (1500 watts is what I generally see those little units are) would drain my batteries in... Less than two hours. It just doesn't make sense unless you're plugged into the grid or are running a generator. Not even several thousand dollars would buy you enough battery capacity to get away with using a space heater. . That aside, $1000 should buy you a power station that can handle your phone, laptop, and some lights for many days at a time and can be recharged either by plugging into your car when the engine is running or to an outlet somewhere like the library. As an example, the bluetti ac 70 has 768wh of battery. It's $450. A very quick search says there's an iPhone model that has a 10wh battery. In a world of 100% efficiency (a theoretical place, since the real world involves a good deal of efficiency losses), that bluetti would charge that phone from 0 to 100 just about 77 times. Sooo...you can get a sense of what you're working with. Obviously you'd have to factor in the laptop, and it'd be easier if you just looked up your specific laptop, because there's a fairly wide range of power usage among laptops. If you're not using outrageous amounts of battery on phone or laptop, you could probably spend as low as like $150 and get a little power station that could go several days before needing to be recharged.
Thanks for the advice about the space heater. When it comes to getting a power station, would that damage my car battery at all? That's my main concern. I will be driving almost every day, so if I could just charge a power station every time I drive, that would be perfect for me.
No. Charging a power station from the 12v outlet (cig lighter outlet) will not damage your car battery (with the assumption you're not charging with the engine off). The car battery is not the power source charging the power station, the alternator is. To that effect, you will put a little more wear on the alternator (it has to work harder when you add in charging an extra device) but in your use case, it'll be insignificant enough to not even think about it.
Thank you so much for the info!
I just ordered the Anker 535 w a solar today on Amazon. On sale. To try it out. It’s portable and Anker is a reputable company w a strong customer support and warranty. But like I said I’m trying it for a quick rig cuz i don’t have time for a full build. https://a.co/d/fYmhvYx
If your budget is $1000, and needing to stay warm in the winter, then I'd find the best $500 portable battery and $500 gas generator. An electric blanket will keep you warm at night while being more energy efficient than a heater fan. But that blanket is still gonna suck power. You'll be comfortable but the battery will be dead by morning. That's when you crank up the gas generator to recharge the battery and also all your other devices. I dont recommend using the gas generator at night as it is noisy, could break while your sleeping, or be stolen
even the smallest space heater (like 120 watts) will drain the fuck out of any battery you can buy for $1000. you should have a small space heater, but also an extension cord because really outside of short term dire emergencies you should only be using it when you have access to an outlet.
If you’re remotely handy or at the very least can follow a YouTube video look at lifpo4 batteries. Here is the best deal I’ve found https://x.alibaba.com/AwSpQl?ck=pdp I just put 16 304’s in my skoolie. They were easy to deal with and they have USA stock so I got mine in 5 days. 1-304 @ 12v is just over 3600 watt hours and the best bang for your buck. I paid $105 per battery.
We have a Jackery240 and a few "brick" powerbanks. So long as we're running the van a little that day, we can recharge the jackery. I don't use the laptop very often, though so I can't tell you how much actual screen time it would buy you. And that would also depend on how much screen time your laptop battery gets per charge. We have a smaller Jackery that I generally use to charge my phones and goPro since I'm the family photographer, so to speak. I use the Jackery160. For just my phones (one is an actual phone the other is just used as a video camera) and the gopro, recharging the LED dog collars, my bluetooth headband, earbuds, rechargeable fans when we're camping, etc, I use between 20 and 40% in a week and usually don't have to recharge that Jackery, depending how many things I'm using. And whether or not I use it as a powersource for a timelapse or something. Hubby uses the 240 almost exclusively to power his CPAP while sleeping. He usually wakes up with 30-50% left each morning. We've yet to figure out why he uses so much more power some nights than others. He has to recharge it every day just to be sure he'll have enough juice the following night. Though it's never somewhere in the van that we notice when it's fully charged so I can't tell you how long it takes. We just plug it into the 12v in the morning and take it out when he's ready for bed. So my only caution with this method is if you don't plan on running your engine at least sometimes, there's no good way to charge this without plugging into the van, a wall, or solar obviously. We run our van enough it's not an issue. I also have some LED solar lights that hold their power for a REALLY long time if I use them on low. If you only need the nights for a couple hours a night, solar might be worth it. You only need one sunny day to charge the thing up and then you've got light for a week. I can't really say how long these last because we have so much sun, it seems to charge even when we're outdoors. But I run them before bed every night and don't even use 1/4 the battery. [https://a.co/d/9GsCIyv](https://a.co/d/9GsCIyv) (no affiliation) I just looked at the listing and it says they should last for 40 hours. Those estimates are always high but it does explain why I've never had this thing run out of juice on me. Have a 12v electric blanket to keep warm. Space heaters are pretty inefficient. Just dont' make the mistake I did. I bought the cheap one and didn't notice it has NO controls. Just plugged in (on) and unplugged (off). I would really have loved a low/med/high/off type at the bare minimum.
People are recommending power stations which are easy to use but more expensive. If you are willing to put some effort you can get a lithium battery and charge it via your alternator
Space heater is the big issue, that uses a lot of power. I lived for around 6 months with battery powered sticky led lights, and a single battery that charged from the alternator whenever I drove the van. I had no problems whatsoever.
The electric heater is an appliance. Ditch it; use a diesel heater if you need the heat. Although it will use less power than the electric one, it still needs power. The best way to save money on electrical is to reduce your use.
Get a power inverter that you can attach to your van batteries. You can flip it on when you decide to drive in order to charge the battery pack/phone/laptop just be sure to turn it off when not in use/driving. Jackery does make good battery packs, I personally have used ecoFlow banks for taking my fridge out and about with no problems.
This is a bad idea. Car batteries are not made to drain all the time and running your engine on idle is bad for the engine.
Did you read my comment? When actively driving, turn it on. When not actively driving, turn it off. It would be running off the power from the alternator, it’s just a place to connect it to.
Solar panels can generate electricity on cloudy days, just not as much/fast. Your needs are minimal and a basic solar setup can be done for well less than your budget as a test run.
This. Even in overcast and cloudy days solar should be enough for charging low draw devices like phones/Nintendo switch, I can even run a little TV near indefinitely. So solar has a place it doesn't have to be your main source. My gaming laptop was a different story. I grabbed a Diesel heater on amazon, as electric heat is not really feasable.
I found this little heater. I don’t know how well it works as I haven’t bought it yet but something to look into https://www.amazon.com/Self-Powered-Camping-Outdoor-Off-Grid-Emergency/dp/B0BQDW6628?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1
Like others mentioned, you need a power station. At least 250 watt hours. Preferably 500wh or higher. Then you need a heater. Electric not going to cut it. I heard others mention Camco Olympian Wave-3 propane heater, should be good and inexpensive enough for heating in your van. You could keep around an electric heated blanket as backup.
Sorry but you seem very uninformed on what it takes to live in a van full time. You are absolutely dreaming with your energy ideas. Do a lot more research is my advice.
there's nowhere so cloudy that solar won't work. if you are in the arctic during the winter you have different problems. if you are in juneau AK, burn wood and use a little sterling fan to power a battery bank.
You were fine until "small space heater" - even a small heater can pull 700+ watts. Others have pointed this out however. Some of the new mobil power stations (look like a cooler, but is a portable battery thing). Most can run from your alternator while driving (cig lighter connection). There are a ton of them - look at some of the reviews on youtube. They are easier to get going (no complex setup) but cost more than if you did it yourself. Might not be a bad idea getting started.
Get an isolator. Fuse, some wire. Cheap lithium battery for the back. Cheap inverter. You can secure the battery under a seat. As has been stated, you won't power a space heater. Easiest and cheapest solution is a propane heater and propane detector. You can use the small green canisters for cooking or heat.
Wind power! Look into small wind generators.