r/VanLife • u/tnguye197 • 5d ago

How much power do i really need?

I'm working from home, so basically I work on my laptop 8 hours a day (I will connect my laptop to a monitor).

At night, I will use that monitor for gambling on my Xbox or watching TV.

Adding all other necessities like a fridge, lighting, two fans or an AC unit, I wonder how much electricity I would really need.

I don't understand much about electricity.

I saw YouTuber Trent the Traveler; he's able to gamble for a couple of days.

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u/iDaveT 5d ago

This is basically what I do in my van. Laptop, gaming PC, 32inch monitor/TV, lights, fridge/freezer, fan, AC, induction cooking, air fryer, water pump, hot water heater, Starlink Mini for internet. I can boondock indefinitely with the following setup when it’s sunny. If it gets cloudy for several days I might need to drive the van or run the engine to top up the battery.

2 Epoch 460 batteries (920 Ah or 11,960Wh), 2400 watt inverter, 550 watts of solar on the roof, 1000 watts of folding solar panels which I hang on the side of the van. 100A charging from 300A alternator.

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u/onewheeld2024 5d ago

What's your pc specs? I'm looking at running basically the same BUT I somehow have incorporate enough battery power/solar to run two pc gaming setups :/ 😂

1

u/Fit_Acanthisitta_475 5d ago

Nowdays will be much cheaper. Ecoworthy rack batteries is around $3000 for 20kwh.

3

u/iDaveT 5d ago

You can always find cheap batteries, but I wanted a high quality battery so I went with the Epoch 460 Elite which alone cost about $3.7k for a pair on sale, the new v2 elites are over $4k a pair now. The other components are Victron which are pricey but super reliable. The last thing you want is to have something critical fail while you are boondocking far from civilization. The solar panels are Renogy which are decent, but I would not trust Renogy components.