Mobile Barista at wits end!

[Seb217]

All I want to do is sell coffee!!! ... yet I have found myself stressing about power supply!

I have a mobile coffee van. I'm done with using generators and so are many event/festival organisers who are now banning petrol/diesel from their sites. In an ideal world I would like a battery fed inverter to power all the equipment that I can't run on LPG.

I would like to achieve 1.5kW of power - I actually currently need 1.2kW of power (not all continuous) but want the extra to future proof against any further equipment that I may want to put on the van in the future.

I need to be able to have power for approx. 10hrs per day. I have sufficient space (but not endless amounts of) to house the batteries and inverter.

As all the equipment that requires power is plugged in to sockets on the walls of the van, can I plug the ‘hook up’ plug into the inverter?

I understand everything there is to know about coffee (and it's more of a science than many people may think) but I know nothing about power. Is there anyone that can please please help.

 

[snowhead]

at 20Kg each, that is a total weight of 300Kg

Just turn up with that lot in a separate smokey Diesel van, the organisers will soon change thier mind.

Why not use an LPG generator?

These organisers are going to have to supply all power to stallholders in the future if they ban small portables.

 

[Seb217]

[QUOTE="James the Spark1976, post: 1547792, member: 118821"

at 20Kg each, that is a total weight of 300Kg

Just turn up with that lot in a separate smokey Diesel van, the organisers will soon change thier mind.

These organisers are going to have to supply all power to stallholders in the future if they ban small portables.
What are the organisers using for thier own power?
[/QUOTE]

That is a very good question!! They are making all mobile caterer's lives hell! As if all the other regulations that we have to abide by aren't enough!

 

[Lister1987]

Stupid addition; whack a solar panel on the roof of the van to trickle feed the batteries, or if you can get enough power from thrm, hookit up to your most power hungry machine as dedicated. might be helpful?

 

[James]

ok so although your peak demand is 1.2kw your average consumption is more in the region of 700w (0.7kw) that would halve the required battery's. so 7 rather than 15 should be sufficient. but I would be putting in 10 if it were my van.

 

[Seb217]

Stupid addition; whack a solar panel on the roof of the van to trickle feed the batteries, or if you can get enough power from thrm, hookit up to your most power hungry machine as dedicated. might be helpful?

Not a stupid addition at all - I was going to think about a solar panel once the basic battery set up had been sorted

 

[The Ghost]

EHO would approve of me using coal or wood

What has this world come to.../sigh!

 

[Seb217]

ok so although your peak demand is 1.2kw your average consumption is more in the region of 700w (0.7kw) that would halve the required battery's. so 7 rather than 15 should be sufficient. but I would be putting in 10 if it were my van.

Thank you. I think that my friend calculated 0.8kW and then said that I should have the 4 x 224Ah, 6V Powerline batteries. Would you advise against 6V ones?

 

[Seb217]

What has this world come to.../sigh!

Like I said - All I want to do is sell coffee!! It's not like I've got masses of equipment or that I am selling a huge menu - I'm only selling coffee, no food being cooked at all!

 

[Lister1987]

I'm having gas installed on the van to power the coffee machine and water boiler. I'm not sure that the EHO would approve of me using coal or wood

"No EHO, this isn't coal, it's a bag of VERY LARGE AND CHARRED coffee beans/pods"

 

[ruston]

It's a farce really all the weight you take there uses energy that has to be generated by some means . I bet there is a massive car park too.

 

[Seb217]

It's a farce really all the weight you take there uses energy that has to be generated by some means . I bet there is a massive car park too.

The banning of generators is to supposedly prevent even a drop of fuel getting onto the grass! ... and before anyone suggests it, I've had an LPG generator - it was so bad that I sold it after only 3 days trading!

 

[James]

I suspect he was going to configure them as 2 banks of 6v in parallel, giving the equivalet of 2 x 110Ah 12v batteries in parallel. its not going to make a big difference to the cost or size requirements however you must remember that every week you will have to top these batteries up with distilled water, so make sure they are easy to access.

 

[ruston]

And storing batteries is safe from accident . It makes you wonder.

 

[Seb217]

I suspect he was going to configure them as 2 banks of 6v in parallel, giving the equivalet of 2 x 110Ah 12v batteries in parallel. its not going to make a big difference to the cost or size requirements however you must remember that every week you will have to top these batteries up with distilled water, so make sure they are easy to access.

What? They need watering?? I can barely keep a house plant alive!! There is nothing on the website nor datasheet that says anything about watering - not that I was really able to understand anything on the datasheet

Would 4 of the aforementioned batteries be enough then?

 

[James]

my best guess is they would be dead in around 4 hours