With so many exciting products on the market that make camping and overlanding an enjoyable activity, its easy to get lost in the search for a power solution. We would love to share the knowledge we have gained to help you make the right decision when selecting a power bank and or solar solution for your needs.
To keep things simple we will use the setups that are in our personal overland trailers as examples. These have relatively simple yet usable devices built into the trailers to make the most out of camping trips.
There are several main factors to consider when selecting the products you will use. These are -
Overall power consumption of all devices currently being used - What do i already have?
Possible future power demands - What would I like to have in the future?
Length of use - how long does my power source need to last?
Ability to recharge - What charging options will I have available?
So, here is the list of all power consumers in the trailers and their relative power consumption per day. Keep in mind having a portable fridge is the largest power consumer and a pure luxury item to use. Although we love our Iceco products, it does force one to need significantly more power capacity then using a traditional cooler.
Power consumers -
Iceco portable fridge - 400w
Awning and tent lights - 40w
Fresh water pump - 25w
As you can see this basic list adds up to roughly 465 watts of power used on one day. This is assuming the fridge runs all day, lights are used for 4 hours in the evening, and the water pump is used for 30 minutes total. If multiple people take showers or keep opening the fridge this number will obviously go up. Power demand will go down if solo camping or ambient temperatures are relatively low.
Future demands -
Diesel heater - roughly 200w
Length of use -
If we consider the typical camping trip for is Friday evening to Sunday mid day, we would need a power bank with a minimum 1400wh capacity. This is considering no solar or vehicle recharging. For this amount of demand we use the Bluetti AC180P or Ecoflow Delta power bank. Before having built in fridges we used the Ecoflow River2 Pro. The Ecoflow had more then enough capacity to last well beyond a 3 day trip.
Ability to recharge -
Having a basic folding solar panel in the 100-120 watt range will give the ability to keep a power bank at a good charge percentage to not worry about power loss almost indefinitely. A 200 watt panel can typically provide enough power to keep a large power bank at 80-100% charge with good sun conditions. Living in Arizona gives us an almost unfair advantage for sun expose to take advantage of. In climates that have heavy cloud cover or lots of shade your ability to recharge via solar will be diminished.
Making a decision -
If you like to keep things simple or have very few devices to power when camping we have found the Ecoflow River 2 Pro to be and ideal solution. When recharging phones, bluetooth speakers, powering tent or awning lights - the 768 watt capacity it is more then enough to last a weekend without recharge. When moving to having a shower, heated blanket or diesel heater, the Ecoflow Delta with a 100 watt panel is a good option. If going all out and having a larger fridge and taking multiple showers is your goal the Bluetti AC180P with a 200 watt solar panel is the way to go.
Testing the AC180P -
We recently took the time to perform a run time test of the AC180P powering an Iceco VL35ProS fridge. This test was relatively simple and consisted of first fully charging the power bank from a wall outlet and connecting the fridge to be powered. The fridge was set to a target temperature of 32 degrees. The power bank and fridge were then left in a garage with ambient temps of 90-105 degrees throughout the day. Left completely untouched the AC180P was able to power the fridge for just over 64 hours. This does not take into account opening and closing the fridge for normal use. The results are still a great base to help determine power and recharge needs. With a 200 watt solar panel being used this setup would have more then enough power to run indefinitely.