Complete Newbie Van Camping - Cooler

[Rewilding]

Hey All!

I'm hoping this could be the place to learn more about a simple (and small) solar system that I am trying to set up in my van. If anyone responds please feel free to be extremely elementary in your reply.

Last summer the wife and I took our 6 week old on a 2.5 month road trip in a van we camperized. All we did was put a bed in and have a cooler.

Now I had this great idea that for a reasonable price (Bought a 40 watt) solar panel for 60% off from Canadian Tire) we could have the cooler run off a battery that could be re-charged by the solar panel.

While driving the cooler can actually be plugged into the 12v outlet and run directly off the cars power...But when we park and camp we might stay 1-7 days in one spot and would want to have our cooler keep some things cold without turning on our vehicle...

The owner at Canadian Tire was super nice and possessively understood batteries and solar panels etc...I went with his recommendations...bought the 40 watt solar panel and one of those battery booster/jumper packs that also had a USB outlet and two AC outlets...It essentially had a 12 volt battery inside of it, right?

Anyways....I quickly learned that the battery was too quick to drain and too slow to re-charge...The electric cooler is definitely not the most efficient appliance but it fits and its the one we have! I believe on the box of the battery pack it said a cooler would last 5-6 hours...I would only get 3-4 hours run time...

I returned the battery booster pack which had an inverter built in?

So all I have is the solar panel and I'm pretty sure I need a battery and an inverter...Or perhaps I should get a more efficient cooler? http://www.bigfrogmountain.com/Engel%2060%20Combi.html

Is my solar panel wattage enough?
Is an expensive lithium battery an option? More storage power and takes up way less space!?
What kind of inverter am I after? (We do plug in a laptop or phone sometimes to charge/run)

Any tips or recommendations are greatly appreciated!

Thanks.

[Sunking]

Is my solar panel wattage enough?

Not even in the ball park of being large enough.

OK lets get you going. Step one is dump the solar panel in the trash as you have no real use for it.

What you need to do what you want is buy Battery Isolator, and a pair of Trojan T-105 batteries (Auxiliary). The battery Isolator isolates you vehicle starting battery and electrical system, and at the same time will charge Auxiliary battery via the vehicle alternator. Your vehicle alternator can generate more energy in 10 minutes than that 40 watt panel can generate in 2 days.

[Rewilding]

Sunking,

Thanks for your reply...I'll look up the items you suggested and probably get back to you with 8 questions....

Cheers.

[Rewilding]

Question # 1

I need a pair of batteries because they are only 6 volts, correct? x2 = 12v....

They seem extremely heavy at 62 lbs!

So how many hours...(amp hours?) would this give me to run the cooler?

And if I fired up the engine how for 15-20 min would it fully recharge the batteries?

Also, How big is the isolator? Couldn't seem to find dimensions...same size as a car battery?

Think I slipped in 3 more Q's...

[inetdog]

And if I fired up the engine how for 15-20 min would it fully recharge the batteries?

Also, How big is the isolator? Couldn't seem to find dimensions...same size as a car battery?

Think I slipped in 3 more Q's...

Probably not. It may put back as much charge as you used in an hour or two, but it will probably not fully charge the battery. The rate of charge goes down as the battery state of charge goes up. And with FLA batteries, there is a hard limit on how fast you can recharge them. Recharge from 50% back up to 80% could take 2 or more hours if the vehicle alternator has plenty of output power. If you use AGM batteries, you can recharge them faster, but vehicle alternator probably cannot support that.
The alternator will have a listed amperage, which could be as low as 40A or potentially much higher when chosen specifically for an RV. You need to find out.

Some diode isolators are as small as 2" by 2" by 4", which may include a heat sink. Other isolators can take up more space depending on exactly how they are built and how the wires attach.