Winterproofing advice

[mikey0451]

Hi struggling with voltage and Watts ect. I have a 1000 litre ibc, 450 litre tank in van. I would like advice on heating element for both and solar panel for charging leisure battery in van. I run 1 pump and electric reel. Any other advice on tried and tested winterproofing appreciated. I can't run electric to van over night so relying on leisure battery and thermostat to do the job. Thankyou.

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[spruce]

Hi struggling with voltage and Watts ect. I have a 1000 litre ibc, 450 litre tank in van. I would like advice on heating element for both and solar panel for charging leisure battery in van. I run 1 pump and electric reel. Any other advice on tried and tested winterproofing appreciated. I can't run electric to van over night so relying on leisure battery and thermostat to do the job. Thankyou.

Sent from my SM-G920F using Tapatalk

2000 watts divided by 230v = 8.7 amps.

3000 watts divided by 230v = 13.04 amps.

Your appliance plug is rated at a maximum of 13amp. You buy replacement fuses for inside your plug in 3, 5 and 13 amps. 3000 watts is too close for comfort on a 13 amp plug and socket.

If you can't run electricity out to the van then its pointless fitting a heating element to the van's tank.

A 12v leisure battery will never provide enough current to run a 230v heating element in your van's tank or any other means of heating for that matter.

There are 2 heating element options that the windies who have fitted them talk about. They are a 2kw and a 3kw. (2kw = 2000 watts and 3kw = 3000 watts.) You could run a 2kw heating element from an ordinary 13amp wall socket with the correct size, uncoiled extension cable. When heading into the 3kw element size this requires a 16amp socket and needs to be fitted by an electrician who will decide the best way of connecting this 16amp socket to the mains.

Your other issue is that a 230v heating element needs to be as low down in the tank as possible but leaving enough clearance for the water to circulate under the element. Working through a small filler on an IBC tank to fit that element will be rather a challenge.

Now I don't know where your IBC tank is but ours is in our garage and even through the bad winter of 2011 the water in the tank never froze. We didn't do much work for 6 weeks that winter. The transfer hose still had water in it and that froze.

The most important thing is your r/o. You need to keep that warm. Mine is also in my garage in a self made wooden cabinet bolted to the wall. The inside where the r/o and di vessel is filled is kept at around 8 degrees with an electric 120 watt tube heater and a frost thermostat.

I do have an 800 watt heater in my van with a frost thermostat fitted. It kicks on at around 2 degrees and off at 5 degrees C. I'm fortunate as I park my van on my driveway. We no longer heat my son's van as he doesn't use it much these days. Today I will drain the pump down so if it freezes up there won't be enough water inside the pump to damage it. We have done this for the last 5 years or so. There is only a couple of inches of water in the bottom of the tank so that can freeze without doing any damage to the tank. To drain the pump down, I do this by unscrewing the filter bowl, emptying that and then switching the pump on ensuring the van port outlet is 'open'. The pump will suck air and push all the water out. If your pumps are low down then hopefully you have a tap exiting the tank. My pumps on my van fitted about 3/4 up the side of the tank. In winter I have a duvet that I throw over the tank and that does slow down some of the heat loss during a cold night.

The reality is that solar in the UK in winter is a complete waste of time. Its in winter that you need it most. The other issue is that the panels need to be tilted facing the sun. For us that's not possible. Caravan owners often complain that a flat solar panel on the roof doesn't generate enough power to keep a fully charged leisure battery topped up.

A window cleaner on the South Coast tried to use solar as a way to charge his leisure battery. He found a PWM controller wasn't as good as a Victron MPPT controller, but it didn't give his enough return in winter and all he was using was 1 pump. In the summer it is no problem. His van battery pack up just over a year ago so he fitted his leisure battery as his starter battery. (His battery is a Numax leisure battery that can also be used as a starter battery. He hasn't had to take is battery out to be charged since as the alternator and solar keeps up. He also has a 10 mile journey to his round which also helps.

But it could be different if he were to fit an electric hose reel. ATM he uses a Black and Decker cordless drill to do the job.

This is interesting to watch. Just apply what he says to your circumstances.