Cheers for that It’s a question that’s been bugging me for a while, I didn’t really understand what and how much of the Victron kit I ’d need so this is really good to see it all in simple jargon. The jackory is a serious piece of kit 👍🏻
Some comments from someone who's got/done both... The CTEK DT250SE has both the solar charge controller and DC to DC charger in one box and comes in at around £350, much cheaper than the Victron kit and does the same thing. It'll also trickle charge your main battery from the solar, once the leisure battery is full - which is very handy on these! There's an Allpowers 1.5kWh powerpack that's cheaper than the Jackery and has 3kW of inverter (enough for an electric frying pan!), which is a better bet IMHO than the Jackery, I snagged one on offer on Amazon with two 100watt panels for the price of the Jackery... In terms of cost, the DT250SE and battery, with cabling, set me back about 30% of the price of the Jackery, but clearly for a lot less capacity (85Ah battery with a usable capacity of about 55Ah). The benefit of the built-in battery and DT250SE is that you don't lose any boot space and it's invisible from the outside - I suspect >1k's worth of solar generator could be a tempting target for a thief... I detailed my install on the FFRR forum, here: www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic66240.html As ever, great video Sam! You're a legend.
Good comparison, we went for a portable power pack (albeit and Anker system) for our trip to Morocco. The beauty was I can move it around the vehicle to suit and between my various G4 land rovers so no interference with OEM looms. However.. initial cost aside, the only ongoing benefit of the traditional component route is the only thing to be replaced in the long term is the battery when the cycle limit is reached. It’ll be interesting to see what these companies do cost wise when the batteries need replacing. If it’s cheaper to replace, could be a lot of wasted packs… maybe some bright spark will think of that and offer good value battery replacement? Good choice for the L322, they can be electrically precious and delicate! Keep up the great content
Hey Jon, thanks for the thoughtful message! I'm pretty sure that most of these portable power systems just use packs of 18650 lithium cells. So it should be entirely possible to recondition (replacing bad cells) or replace with entirely new packs without too much trouble. If I'm feeling brave I might pop open the case on the Jackery and see how easy it might be to service in the future! N.b. very jealous of your fleet of G4 Landies!
I’ve looked at these, also the other method. But decided we really don’t need 230v when we are out and about. Plus space is a big thing for us, as you will see in tomorrow’s video. If you need the power, then it looks a good option.
It's a trade off, you can get a lot of 12v appliances nowadays, but then it's 30 euros for an electric hot-plate from Carrefour, whereas you'll pay a lot more for an equivalent 12v kettle/cooker etc. It's always nice to have camping gaz as a backup... but then you can boil an electric kettle on the tailgate of the fatty and not worry about getting carbon monoxide poisoning, or setting fire to that parcel shelf (which'll cost you 600 euros to replace and take 6 months to find one in good condition...). I often do a trip from Barcelona to Manchester in the L322 to visit family, having a couple of kWh of power on tap and a 230v socket means I can cook a quick pot noodle, or stick the heated blanket on to sleep in the car and know the fatty will still start in the morning, that's kind of convenient too! :)
With electricity prices going up and EV's becoming more common on camp sites, I suspect the currently (badum tisch) cheap price that campsites charge for a hook-up is going to make them more common...
In my TD5 Defender 110 I have dual battery system based on victron. Right now i'm thinking about adding something like this to my L322 4.2 SC and solar generator is one of the options. But what i'm concerned about is how fast does it charge while driving, with victron I'm getting lots of amps from my alternator, and from what i've read solar generator don't charge with so high current. Looking forward for real usage tests :)
This is the problem with the solar generators - if you use the 12v feed they're generally limited to 300 watts, which is the maximum of the cigarette lighter sockets (25amp), whereas of course the alternator on these can provide more like 1800watts (150amps). Using a DC to DC charger connected directly you'll be able to make more use of the available current from the alternator - though again, be careful, as some DC chargers like the DT250SE still only charge at ~20amp/300watts. You can also add the CTek smartpass 120SE, which will let you dump ~120 amps of power from the alternator into the leisure battery, that's another 300quid on top of the DT250SE though. Your other option is to use an inverter connected direct direct to the DC and pushing out 18v or so at the maximum input current the solar generator can handle, this can be in excess of 300watts, depending on the solar generator. FWIW, I went with a combination, I have an 85Ah battery and DC to DC charger, with a 300 watt roof mounted solar panel - this means the battery is always being charged, whether from Solar or the alternator, at 20amp. Though it's not charging quite as fast as it could with a smartpass it's enough for my usage!
Sam, which out of the three main players would you consider… eg ekoflow vs blueyettti vs jackery? Be useful knowing the pros of cons of each respective products. Clearly they are all going to win out on cost/space vs a trad victron setup but there’s hardly anything between themselves!
Best videos on UA-cam 💯💯💯
Cheers for that It’s a question that’s been bugging me for a while, I didn’t really understand what and how much of the Victron kit I ’d need so this is really good to see it all in simple jargon. The jackory is a serious piece of kit 👍🏻
Some comments from someone who's got/done both... The CTEK DT250SE has both the solar charge controller and DC to DC charger in one box and comes in at around £350, much cheaper than the Victron kit and does the same thing. It'll also trickle charge your main battery from the solar, once the leisure battery is full - which is very handy on these!
There's an Allpowers 1.5kWh powerpack that's cheaper than the Jackery and has 3kW of inverter (enough for an electric frying pan!), which is a better bet IMHO than the Jackery, I snagged one on offer on Amazon with two 100watt panels for the price of the Jackery...
In terms of cost, the DT250SE and battery, with cabling, set me back about 30% of the price of the Jackery, but clearly for a lot less capacity (85Ah battery with a usable capacity of about 55Ah). The benefit of the built-in battery and DT250SE is that you don't lose any boot space and it's invisible from the outside - I suspect >1k's worth of solar generator could be a tempting target for a thief...
I detailed my install on the FFRR forum, here: www.fullfatrr.com/forum/topic66240.html
As ever, great video Sam! You're a legend.
Good comparison, we went for a portable power pack (albeit and Anker system) for our trip to Morocco. The beauty was I can move it around the vehicle to suit and between my various G4 land rovers so no interference with OEM looms. However.. initial cost aside, the only ongoing benefit of the traditional component route is the only thing to be replaced in the long term is the battery when the cycle limit is reached. It’ll be interesting to see what these companies do cost wise when the batteries need replacing. If it’s cheaper to replace, could be a lot of wasted packs… maybe some bright spark will think of that and offer good value battery replacement?
Good choice for the L322, they can be electrically precious and delicate! Keep up the great content
Hey Jon, thanks for the thoughtful message!
I'm pretty sure that most of these portable power systems just use packs of 18650 lithium cells. So it should be entirely possible to recondition (replacing bad cells) or replace with entirely new packs without too much trouble. If I'm feeling brave I might pop open the case on the Jackery and see how easy it might be to service in the future! N.b. very jealous of your fleet of G4 Landies!
Ruggedised is my new favourite word!!
I’ve looked at these, also the other method. But decided we really don’t need 230v when we are out and about. Plus space is a big thing for us, as you will see in tomorrow’s video. If you need the power, then it looks a good option.
Yeah it’s not a necessity but is definitely nice to have on longer stays away from home. I quite like the idea of no gas needed for cooking too!
@@SamsMotors I’m going to try cooking on a rocket stove at some point, see how that pans out.
It's a trade off, you can get a lot of 12v appliances nowadays, but then it's 30 euros for an electric hot-plate from Carrefour, whereas you'll pay a lot more for an equivalent 12v kettle/cooker etc.
It's always nice to have camping gaz as a backup... but then you can boil an electric kettle on the tailgate of the fatty and not worry about getting carbon monoxide poisoning, or setting fire to that parcel shelf (which'll cost you 600 euros to replace and take 6 months to find one in good condition...).
I often do a trip from Barcelona to Manchester in the L322 to visit family, having a couple of kWh of power on tap and a 230v socket means I can cook a quick pot noodle, or stick the heated blanket on to sleep in the car and know the fatty will still start in the morning, that's kind of convenient too! :)
They are an interesting piece of kit for sure...I can see them becoming the norm for camping
With electricity prices going up and EV's becoming more common on camp sites, I suspect the currently (badum tisch) cheap price that campsites charge for a hook-up is going to make them more common...
Great video, helped me with a lot of head scratching.
I’ve installed a basic split charge system for vehicle and brought a eco flow power bank with solar panels to charge everything else
Great video, lots of good information 👍
Glad it was helpful!
In my TD5 Defender 110 I have dual battery system based on victron. Right now i'm thinking about adding something like this to my L322 4.2 SC and solar generator is one of the options. But what i'm concerned about is how fast does it charge while driving, with victron I'm getting lots of amps from my alternator, and from what i've read solar generator don't charge with so high current.
Looking forward for real usage tests :)
This is the problem with the solar generators - if you use the 12v feed they're generally limited to 300 watts, which is the maximum of the cigarette lighter sockets (25amp), whereas of course the alternator on these can provide more like 1800watts (150amps).
Using a DC to DC charger connected directly you'll be able to make more use of the available current from the alternator - though again, be careful, as some DC chargers like the DT250SE still only charge at ~20amp/300watts.
You can also add the CTek smartpass 120SE, which will let you dump ~120 amps of power from the alternator into the leisure battery, that's another 300quid on top of the DT250SE though.
Your other option is to use an inverter connected direct direct to the DC and pushing out 18v or so at the maximum input current the solar generator can handle, this can be in excess of 300watts, depending on the solar generator.
FWIW, I went with a combination, I have an 85Ah battery and DC to DC charger, with a 300 watt roof mounted solar panel - this means the battery is always being charged, whether from Solar or the alternator, at 20amp. Though it's not charging quite as fast as it could with a smartpass it's enough for my usage!
Mind blown!
Sam, which out of the three main players would you consider… eg ekoflow vs blueyettti vs jackery? Be useful knowing the pros of cons of each respective products. Clearly they are all going to win out on cost/space vs a trad victron setup but there’s hardly anything between themselves!
Take a look at Allpowers, they're cheaper and have a 3kW inverter.
Another good video 🚘🚙🚗👍👍👍👍⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The good thin with buying the jackery you could buy 2 for wat it would cost to buy the other lot
Not really... CTek DT250SE + 85Ah battery = 400 euros/350GBP or so :\ Maybe another 150 for an inverter?
Nah. Not for me.
How comes Dave?