Hi, we are a group of students of international relations and we are doing a project about van life. Could you please help us answering a few questions?
Thank you so much!
Greetings!
- How much do you spend on gas per month?
$40-50/mo. when not traveling.
- How much do you spend on energy? What source of energy do you use?
Initially I spent $80 for my house battery, isolator (solenoid), and installation, $40 for a 120v battery charger, $99 for a gas generator, and eventually $99 for my “Black Box”. I also have an inverter that I don’t remember what I paid for it, and practically never use it. No under performing solar.
Except for replacing the house battery every 6-7 years with a ~$20 deep cycle battery from a junk yard, I don’t think I’ve ever used more than a couple of gallons of gas per year for the generator.
- Would you benefit from solar panels?
Absolutely not!!!
- What is a product that would help you with your lifestyle?
Okay, I already have these, but most people do not.
Electricity/Battery free, heating, cooling, cooking, fridge/freezer, ventilation, and lighting. In my case, all of these things are liquid candle powered, using cooking oil. One gallon of cooking oil will last me over a month, and can be conveniently bought in almost any grocery store. Smaller amounts can even be bought in dollar stores or convenience stores if necessary.
I converted a 3-way RV fridge/freezer to run on a liquid candle instead of propane. The heating, cooling, & ventilation use a heat powered wood stove fan to make them fan forced without electricity.
I use cooking oil fueled kerosene lanterns for lighting, plus I have a few different candle to LED lights that we use. The ones I have were designed to use tea light candles, but I converted them to use refillable liquid (cooking oil) candles instead.
We also have many flashlight battery powered, and solar/crank powered lighting options. We use rechargeable batteries in these, and I have a stand alone solar flashlight battery charger that we just sit in a window so we always have fully charged batteries available to swap out.
Our house power is normally used mainly to charge our laptops & phones, but we do have other 12v luxuries that we use occasionally, as well as charging USB rechargeable goodies.
Each bed has 2x non-powered, reversible heating/cooling blankets, one under the bottom sheet, and one over the top sheet, in addition to 12v powered heating/cooling mattress pads, & blankets, although the powered ones are rarely needed. It’s normal for me to run house heating/cooling all night when needed.
Comfort, convenience, and reliability are very important to us since we both live and work from inside our rig. The fact that my choices are usually cheap, is just a delightful coincidence.
Cheers!
I spend a lot on gas because Im mostly actively traveling, and have a small motorhome, which uses more gas than a van.
I dont spend much on energy, though. For a typical allowed 14 day stay at a wilderness campsite my house/auxiliary batteries get enough charge from driving between camps, which is usually a good distance, and this charge lasts me 10-13 days to run propane fridge, heating and occasional lights. I use foldable, portable cheap solar panel to recharge my electronics and to top off my house batteries once in a while. I only run generator to excercise it, as required, 2 hrs a month, and it uses almost no gas. My fridge, water heater and furnace run off propane and I only use at most 5 gallons of it a month at most, in the coldest month, which is like $17-20 or so.
I would benefit from permanent solar installed on the roof, of course but its just not worth the trouble. When I camp in the forests I park in the shade that would prevent charging, ehile my portable panel handles this ok by being moved. Also, would not want roof leak risks or additional fire risks from extra wiring thats not immediately accessible to check, neither I’m looking forward to climbing on that tall roof.
Need outside portable oven!