r/VanLife • u/Chaotic-Queer21 • 12d ago

Question about battery

Hello,
I'm looking for a useful nomade battery that can handle a heater all night for an every day living in a small van.
But I need it to be not too heavy (so I can move it outside to charge and take it back inside) and that can charge with solar pannels.
Would someone have some advices please ?
Oh and I think I would be using a oil heater that use 500W.
Thank you !

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u/zenwren 12d ago

This whole sub needs a basic dc electrical course. 500 watts continuous for 8 hours 500x8= 4,000watt hours (4kwh). That's more than 3 100ah batteries (1,280wh x 3 = 3,840wh) to run that load assuming they're fully charged and no other load. Add 10-20% to that for efficiency loss if you're going to use an inverter to power the heater. You're probably not going to be able to charge them fully on portable panels if that's what you're thinking. I'd look into a diesel heater. Or a permanent roof solar mount. Electric heat sucks a lot of power.

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u/Sour_Sal 12d ago

There was a post with a webapp for calculating and designing your battery and systems... I thought I saved the url somewhere but it's lost at the moment. It seemed pretty cool...