How long Gas, Water & Electricity Last

When planning our trip, it was very difficult to decide what size water tank, leisure battery, and gas canister to buy because we didn't know how long each would last. It's quite important because it affects how long we can stay off grid before finding somewhere to stop and refill. In the end, we just went with whatever we had the space for or could afford. 

Here's what we have and how long it lasts...

Water


What we have: 20L water and waste
Average lifespan: 2-3 days

We buy bottled water to drink and use the water from our jerry can for hot drinks, cooking, and washing up. We try to be minimal with what we use, but on average it lasts around 2.5 days. As that's not a lot of time and all we could fit under the sink, we carry another 20 litre jerry can in our back box for topping up when we run out. That gives us a comfortable 4-6 days of being able to travel without worrying about finding a place to refill.


Electricity


What we have: 120w solar panel (we think)* and 125ah leisure battery
Average lifespan: 1 day

Electricity is a difficult one because there are so many variables; the usage varies day to day, and the charge is affected by the weather.
In terms of keeping phones and devices charged, it handles it easily. One of the larger devices like our laptop, TV-DVD or fridge can drain it within a couple of hours if it's a cloudy day and take a full day or two to recharge. When the sun is beaming down, we can use one device at time for a few hours and then regenerate to full battery again a couple of hours later.
*our solar panel came with the van so we don't know it's power for sure but this is what we would guess judging by its size.

Gas


What we have: 4.5kg Calor Gas
Average Lifespan: 10 weeks and counting

Just our stove uses the gas, which we use every morning for coffee and most evenings for dinner. It last us 15 weeks. We already had an empty Calor canister that we refilled, as it's much cheaper than buying new. However, when it does run out, we may have to buy a new one along with the valve because European ones are different. 


Our Energy Saving Tips


Boil the kettle once for multiple uses.
If you boil the kettle for drinks or cooking and have some water left over, use it straight away to wash up what you can. It saves using more water and gas later.

Charge devices while you drive.
Pretty obvious, but use the van battery to charge phones or tablets while you drive to save power in your leisure battery. We have a cigarette lighter splitter that allows us to charge 2 phones while using the SatNav.

Connect your leisure battery to the alternator
We failed to install this, but it would certainly have been handy on cloudy days. It means once the van battery is fully charged, the leisure battery charges while you drive.

Matt :)


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Location: Costa del Sol, Málaga, Spain

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