Powering Up

On to the subject of power.     *zap!*

Will be trying to keep things that need power down to a minimal.  So far these things are what are going into Savannah that will be needing some juice from time to time:

Cell phone
iPad
Portable jumper pack
Portable power bank
7" DVD player
10" fan
Two 5" fans

Okay, so let's eliminate the ones that are ran by battery only.  That will be the two 5" fans.  The other items, however will need some sort of power to keep them going.

There are two 12v plug in's in the van.  One in the dash that stays hot all the time, and one through the box wired in next to the TV that's mounted overhead of the captains chairs, it's only hot when the engine is on. 

During the day I will be able to charge my phone, iPad, portable power bank, and DVD player through the 12v plug in the dash.  They all have an adapter for 12v plugins.  I will also, with an inverter adapter, be able to charge up the portable jumper pack to top off it's battery.

The portable jumper pack and the portable power bank are what I will use in the evening should I need power other than what has be already been charged throughout the day while driving.

First off, the portable jumper pack.   This is the one I have:

This handy thing is a car battery jumper.  It also has an air compressor that has a gauge on it, so I can easily check the tire pressure of my tires and inflate if needed.  There is also a USB port for use, along with one 12v plug.  I am currently testing the 12v plug with my 10" fan to see how long the fan runs off a single charge (for the warmer months when I want a fan at night).  The sealed battery inside makes me feel safe having it in the cabin with me.  There is a knob you have to turn to make the jumper cables work, so I feel better knowing those things are not hot all of the time, just hot when needed.  It's fairly light weight, as well.  An LED light if you need it, though it doesn't look like it will light up the world, haha.  
*Update*  The 12v fan plug in experiment is completed.  The fan ran for seven hours and the battery pack still showed half charge.  So I can safely assume I can have a running fan all night come warmer months.  It took about 3 hours to fully charge the battery pack back up to full charge.  I am also looking in to a USB plugged in fan, as a back up.

Only drawback is the charging aspect.  There is a flip out plug-in for recharging, which means I will have to attach an extension cord to it, then plug it in to the inverter adapter that is going through the 12v system while I am driving.  But hey, I'm going to be driving anyway, may as well charge up the ole battery, eh?  It also automatically shuts off when the battery is topped off, preventing over charging.

The second portable battery bank in my power defense line up is this small little unit:

It's actually that covered little white thing.  Yeah, really, that little thing... it is a jump starter as well.  It charged up my iPad yesterday.  Seems like my iPad takes forever to charge, even plugged in to the wall.  The iPad was 2/3rds dead when I started charging it, it took a few hours to fully charge it up, and what the jumper pack's power was left with was down to 60% charge left.  The reviews showed someone jumpstarting multiple vehicles off one charge.  It comes with a 12v plug in to recharge from my cigarette lighter while driving, so that's cool.  Comes in a cool carrying case, as well.   Okay, just plain ole black case, but at least it all stays together. 

So between my running vehicle and it's ability to supply 12v charge while driving, batteries, and these two devices, I hope my simple needs will be met.



#VanConversion  #Camping  #CampingGear