 |
||||||||||
|
konvertible now on line
|
 Energy overview  Sustainable Environment with Kimberley Kruiser foreword by Bruce LoxtonThere is great pleasure camping in a remote part of Australia on a still and starry night with only the sound of the night fire. There is great satisfaction to be able to do this for as long as you like without having to start-up a generator. There is even more satisfaction to do this with fresh bread every morning, hot showers, cold drinks and plenty of internal lights - and still plenty of energy left which is renewable! This is the goal of sustainable energy. Caravan & camper trailer manufacturers have not made it easy to achieve this goal in the past as there are very few energy efficient caravans and camper trailers. However, after working over the last 5 years, researching, trialling and using energy efficient products, we are confident of having a practical solution. In addition, we constantly ask travellers for feedback on our solutions and can safely say that nearly all appreciate the value of energy efficiency. It just takes a little more investment, a little more planning and a little more attention to minimise power when it is not needed. Our Environmentally Friendly Solutions (including energy solutions):include
The diesel hotwater and optional heater can run on bio- diesel if it is to the international and European standards. Aparently some bio-diesel in Australian is not produced to this standard. These are quiet and very efficient in diesel consumption. 12 Litres of Diesel use is the equivalent to nearly 24kgs of LPG should LPG appliances be used instead. We estimate that 12L will last you 20 days typical use. The refrigerator we chose for the Karavan has a remote mounted compressor (Danfoss) that we cool with an inlet vent and exhaust vent at the compressor . This increases efficiency significantly and the 130L unit (with freezer) consumers on average only 19.5 amp hours/day. This is similar to the 73 L Eutectic Autofrige we supply in our Kamper range. We also practice what we preach. I took the family for 2 weeks without a generator and using only solar panels to an isolated area on the Queensland coast. The model we took was our entry level Kamper with only 140Ah of battery capacity. After 3-4 days of rain, and very little solar charging, we were very close to only 35% battery capacity remaining. The family had been opening and closing the fridge all day for drinks. Although wet, the ambient temperature was warm. We were a day away from the fridge (with food for 6 of us) cutting out. Fortunately, the sun came out on day 4 and we left after 10 more days with adequate battery capacity. Would it have been a disaster if the fridge had cut out totally?
However, for safety and convenience at night, we really needed the lighting as an essential power source. The low power consumption of the LED lights would have given us another 10 nights at least so it would not have been a disaster. As a last resort, we could plug the vehicle in and charge using the vehicle’s alternator, but that was the least energy efficient solution. The lesson learned was that in less predictable weather on the coast, we needed higher battery capacity. This experience convinced me more than ever
of the need to use LED lighting and low power pumps – so that in
tight spot with limited battery capacity, the LED lights could be used
night after night without draining too much capacity.
The major benefits of maximising sustainable energy are:
|
|||||||||
