Even though most campers who need electricity book a campground with electricity, sometimes it is not available. Those of you who use camping tents are probably used to get by without electricity or rely solely on the car battery. Those of you with a caravan or motorhome may find yourselves in situations where the capacity is not enough.
The size of the battery depends on what kind of equipment you want to run. Do you only need enough to charge your mobile phone, or have you brought more demanding equipment? Here are a few examples of battery solutions and what capacity they have. If you want to get by for longer periods with smaller units, you can always complement with solar panels to charge the batteries or the equipment directly on the field.
Example of amount of charges/hours different batteries can provide
Unit | 11 Wh, 2300mAh | 29 Wh, 7800mAh | 400 Wh, 33 Ah |
Headlamp (4 Wh): | 2 | 5-10 | 100 |
Mobile phone (5-7 Wh): | 1 | 3-5 | 30+ |
GoPro (5 Wh): | 1-2 | 5 | 70+ |
Digital camera (8 Wh): | 1 | 3 | 20+ |
Tablet (25-42 Wh): | 25% | 1 | 10+ |
Laptop (50 Watt-Hours): | - | - | 3-5 |
Cool box Thermoelectric: 46 Wh: | - | - | 6 hours |
Cool box Compressor: (0,35 Ah): | - | - | 75-90 hours |
The most common question we get is regarding the operation of a cool box via battery. What you need to consider is that most cool boxes (thermoelectric) are very demanding. Most of the large capacity batteries on the market today can power the box for about 5-8 hours, even if the box itself has an eco-mode. If you want to use a cool box without a power outlet, we recommend a compressor cool box. With a compressor cool box you get much less power consumption and many large capacity batteries can power the cool box through a weekend at the very least. If you combine the battery with solar panels you can go on much longer trips without electricity, depending on the weather of course. You can, for example, get a week’s worth of camping with a Goal Zero 500 battery, a 50W solar panel and an Outwell Deep Cool 28 with just a few hours of sunshine per day. A tip is to always power up the box at home or in the car, so it is already cool when you arrive – this is because it uses most power during startup.
If you plan to run heavy equipment like tools, a microwave oven or a portable stove via battery, it is important to check how much power (W) the battery can provide, and to make sure your equipment requires less than that. You can see a list down below of how much power certain electronic devices generally require.
Those of you who complement with a generator, a common question is what size to use. It depends a lot on what kind of equipment you are planning to run. If you need to use power tools you most likely will need a larger generator, since they require a lot of power in the startup phase. Down below you can see examples of the power consumption and startup multiplier for different tools. For those of you who plan to use geneator for your summer cabin, there are a lot of electronic devices that are developed with low energy consumption in mind. These work better with smaller generators.
Equipment | Power usage (W) | Startup multiplier |
---|---|---|
TV | 100-350 | 1 |
Radio | 50-150 | 1 |
Coffee maker | 750-1050 | 1 |
Freezer | 90-400 | >=3 |
Frier | 1800-2000 | 1 |
Grill | 1000-2500 | 1 |
Hair dryer | 1800-2200 | 1 |
Microwave oven | 1200-1600 | 2 |
Blender | 300-700 | 1 |
Oven | 1800-3000 | 1 |
Fridge | 50-250 | 3 |
Flat iron | 1400-2260 | 1 |
Toaster | 850-1150 | 1 |
Drier | 1200-2500 | 1 |
Vacuum cleaner | 700-1800 | 1 |
Washer | 2100-2400 | 1.5 |
Air-conditioner | 500-2500 | >=3 |
Heater | 1000-1800 | 1 |
Equipment | Power usage (W) | Startup multiplier |
---|---|---|
Chainsaw | 1400-1800 | 2 |
Hedge trimmer | 400-800 | 2 |
Lawn mower | 300-1600 | 2 |
Shredder | 700-2500 | 2 |
Edge trimmer | 200-600 | 2 |
Equipment | Power usage (W) | Startup multiplier |
---|---|---|
Angle grinder | 500-900 | 2 |
Cement mixer | 500-850 | 3 |
Buzz saw | 1000-1600 | 1.5 |
Compressor | 1200-2500 | >=3 |
Drill | 500-1100 | 1 |
Sander | 135-350 | 1 |
Crosscut saw | 120-400 | 1.5 |
Hammer drill | 600-800 | 1 |
Pressure cleaner | 1200-3000 | 3 |
Heat gun | 1600-2000 | 1 |
Jigsaw | 350-750 | 1 |
Beltsander | 300-450 | 1 |
Welding machine | 1800-2000 | 1 |
Plane | 470-750 | 1 |
Router | 800-1300 | 1 |
Paint spray | 95-750 | 1 |
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