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Renogy 100 Watt 12 Volt Solar Panel Starter Kit with 100W Monocrystalline Solar Panel + 30A PWM Charge Controller + Adaptor Kit + Tray Cables + Mounting Z Brackets for RV Boats Trailer Off-Grid System?
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I have a 100w one on my campervan, but its not exactly portable, I mounted it to a roof rack, it keeps a mini fridge, laptop, TV and diesel heater running along with charging my phone daily, its connected to a 12v 110Ah Leisure battery that has an invertor for the 240v stuff, I try to avoid 240v at all costs as its overhead is large on the invertor.
Paid £100 for it in 2020 so its gone up a little since at £160 for 100w, budget another ~£100 for the battery, would you save the £260?
Panel is similar to this one: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=dp\_prsubs\_1?pd\_rd\_i=B00BFCNFRM&psc=1
I have the charge controller that comes with this kit (the wanderer) so if that's the one you are talking about, let me know what you need and I can get it for you.
My boat didn't come with the solar setup, but I fitted them myself. You'll need the panel itself, a charge controller, and some sort of battery to store the charge. You could have the same sized system I have (without the battery included) for $200 bucks on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM
You can install this yourself http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=lp_3236381_1_3?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1445552368&sr=1-3 which would be an option when you didn't need the extra power.
deep cycle battery around 100ah and one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1440677909&sr=8-3&keywords=renogy+100W
you can then use DC LED lights and fans from RV systems. You could hook up a small car inverter under 500W f you want any AC power.
Forget about electric heaters though.
a 10W solar module isn't going to do much if anything other than trickle charge a battery.
You are going to want at least 50W better for battery maintenance would be a 100W and a charge controller.
More along the lines of this as a minimal system:
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1440677909&sr=8-3&keywords=renogy+100W
And forget about a small or ANY space heater.
A jump start inherently requires a MASSIVE amount of amperage. This $200 panel produces just shy of 1% of the required power to jump an average car. Even a slow charge with a panel that fits in your trunk would take several hours to charge. And on a marginally healthy battery, that might not do the job anyway.
sure most charge controllers have dual outputs. One you can use for direct feed and/or set on a timer and one that goes to charging the batteries. That's exactly what I am doing with this kit (Which might be the kit you got). There are three sets of connectors on the control, one for the panels, one for the batteries and one for power out. You can use that power out in a bunch of ways but I use it to just pull power when the sun is up, but you can also have it as the thru for power from you batteries.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFCNFRM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Amazon has the same Renogy setup with MPPT controllers:
- http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM/
- http://www.amazon.com/200W-Mono-Starter-Kit-Controller/dp/B00BCRG22A/
But the PWM is a 30Amp, while the MPPT is a 20Amp; yet the MPPT jumps up the cost significantly.
Additionally, being my first dabbling in DIY solar, I'm a bit more interested in simplicity and cost than in efficiency.
Do you have any direct recommendations that wouldn't add significantly to cost and simplicity?
I think you can learn everything you need to hook up a small solar system that will do what you are asking here. If you are interested, here is what I'd do if I were in your shoes. Everything I write here tuned to solve for watching a movie on a tablet and charging your phones.
Equipment you need:
- A 12v Lithium Ion Phosphate battery (LiFePO4) that is about 30 amp hours (AH). Amp hours is the amount of juice it can hold. Lead acid (SLA) batteries also OK. You'll get more life and power out of a Li battery over the equivalent SLA, but they are often more expensive.
- Renogy 100 watt solar kit. You can get a bigger kit, but you don't need it for your current problem. You can find this on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=emc_b_5_t?th=1
This covers your solar panel, charge controller, wiring, brackets to mount if needed, and power storage on the battery. Now we look at how to use that battery power for something useful, like charging your cell and tablets.
Since the battery is 12v and you are charging electronics, I recommend a pure sine wave inverter with USB ports. I own this one and like it for laptop and phones. I can charge my devices while it is connect to the battery with the inverter switch off (there is some drain when the inverter is on as it is always ready for you to plug something in)
The only two troubles with that one is that is requires a "cigarette lighter" style DC outlet to plug into, and your battery doesn't have that on it yet. To solve for this you need a dongle off your battery that you can connect the inverter into. I like this one because it supports a replaceable fuse. You'll blow them from time to time, so get more from your local auto parts store (bring one of the ones that came with it and they'll match it up). It uses alligator clamps to connect to the battery, so you don't need to worry about if your battery uses ring or blade terminals:
HEADS UP: Don't put a bigger fuse into the wire than what came with it...this one appears to come with a 30 amp fuse and is 12 gauge wiring. The inverter I linked appears to use around 5amps at max, so I'd replace that with a 10 amp one.
There you go...this should be pretty complete...power generation (solar panel), a way to safely get that generated power into your battery (Wanderer charge controller), a place to store that power (your choice of batteries), a way to get that battery power into a usable form (the cig lighter dongle and the Giandel inverter).
Also, since the Wanderer charge controller is a 30 amp one, you could likely expand this to 4 100 watt panels total in the future (wired in parallel to keep the voltage at 12v). That's another post, tho, but the folks at Renogy will help you do that if you like.
FYI: I'll update this as people point out errors and omissions
Got all ready to bash on you for no safety, then you went from simple circuit to a proper solar controller, and telling us never to go direct because we'll blow up our battery. Now I'm feeling quite pleased that I kept my mouth shut.
Pretty well done little video. For folks on the eagle-flag side of the pond, here's some links to similar hardware
https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM/
That kit gets you the panel and the charge controller - add your own battery, supports 'normal' sealed lead acid, flooded old school add-water car batteries, my personal favorite 'gel' or AGM batteries, and new hotness lithium packs.
https://www.amazon.com/Plant-OUEVA-16-4ft-Waterproof-Spectrum/dp/B06XCM28Q8
some cheap and cheerful LED "grow light" strips - I can't comment on how good they are.
https://www.amazon.com/JVR-Programmable-Digital-Battery-Powered/dp/B00WR0ELCO/
Holy cross college, I think that's the same timer you've got in the video!
I'm a big fan of solar, and for less than $200 american plus a car battery, you can pretty much get you free grow lights for years and years.
I do think it's worth noting that a 'car battery' that has less than 9v or so across the terminals is more or less garbage. It's got failed cells in it, and it will never be right again. Especially if you're not too confident or experienced in this electrical stuff, that's just a problem waiting to happen. If your car battery reads 10.5 or more volts just sitting there with nothing plugged into it, you should be fine. Not a guarantee, mind..
This is a good kit to get you started:
- Controller w Panel $150
- Battery $110
- 18 awg wire (for low-wattage stuff like LED lights) $25
- Switch panel for accessories $30
- Inverter $40
- Better, pure sine wave inverter $70
I went overboard and got a 100aH battery as well as some different brackets for the panel. Let me know if you have any questions.
Connecting this panel and charger directly to the batteries would be the simple and cost-effective route.
https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM
Other commentor is right though. You would need a car usb or power charger to go with this.
>I would have to onewheel to my parents house 3 miles away to charge the battery
Keep in mind if it's cloudy (like in many weather situations where you lose power for a week) you will get very little if any charge.
This panel / charge controller is what I have to charge my personal deep cycle 12V battery. Car batteries are just not appropriate for this application, they are designed to put out a lot of juice quickly to get the car started, then immediately after that start getting charged by the alternator.
So that panel can do 500Wh in a DAY of ideal conditions. If you want to pop over to your parents, plug in for 2 hours (and those hours happen to be 12-2pm and it's very sunny) you'd need 4 panels to fully charge the battery banks you linked.
I'd consider getting a Carve Power and just keeping a bunch of those Ryobi-equivalent batteries on hand and charged. That's 9 miles per battery. That way you get several days of Onewheel charges, AND you have a sweet ride extending battery setup to take long rides when there is no power outage. And for $70 Ryobi makes an AC adaptor for those batteries, so if you did lose poewr you could charge your phone and computer off them too. However, a quick google makes it seem like charging those directly off solar is quite difficult - you'd be back to needing another battery that has an inverter. But basically I'm arguing to ditch the solar and go with this setup could keep you riding, computing, and running a couple LED bulb lights for the majority power outage situations, which are less than a week in most places. And has the bonus of being something you can use to extend your rides in general. And if you and your parents live in a spot where it's likely you'd both be out of power for more than a week, shouldn't they have a gas generator?
Here is the charge controller and panel.
Here is the battery.
I'm just getting into solar and right now only have a 5W pond pump running off it for a hydroponics system (so it needs to run 24hrs). Even the small battery is way overkill for what I need right now so when I say "working fine", I don't mean that everything is as good as it could or should be,I just mean it's working for me.
Eventually I'll add more load to the system and need to modify/upgrade.
Recommend this as an emergency backup ?
About to use this kit. Several people have been happy. I would upgrade the controller unless you just need a basic solar setup.
https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM/
Pretty much, yeah. I can give a couple examples that I have experience with though. I’ve got this 100 watt renogy kit on my motorhome, but I’ve added 3 extra panels to max out the charger’s capacity. And I have this cheap tp-solar kit on a chicken coop.
The renogy charger (re-brand or clone of an “EPEVER” charger) is much nicer, the tp-solar charger doesn’t have good defaults and has confusing battery setup. It does get the job done though. Panel quality is pretty similar between the brands.
There are also smaller 12v charger panels specifically for putting in vehicle windows too, if you browse Amazon you can find them pretty easily just searching for “solar charger” or “solar car charger” or similar. I don’t know too much about them personally, but the reviews should be able to at least point you the right way if that’s the size you’re after.
There's a lot of research that you really should do about how much power you use per day vs how much battery capacity and solar panel output it will take to keep things charged. However, if you really just want to get something going, you're probably fine to just pick up this same starter kit I have, which is a 100w Renogy panel and 30A charger. I found the 100w panel wasn't quite enough, so I also added three additional matching 100w Renogy solar panels.
You will also need some of solar branch connectors to plug them together, the renogy 30a charger can do 4x 100w panels at most, but they must be in parallel (all + and all - hook together). You might need additional wire depending on how you have to lay the panels on your roof. Also, don't forget more of the z-brackets to hold up the additional panels, as only the full kit comes with it's own.
I also used some cable glans to pop the wiring through the side of my fridge vent, and then bring the power down behind the non-burner side of my fridge opening, all zip-tied nicely away from the fridge coils.
Attaching the panels is pretty straight forward, at least for my fiberglass roof. I just put down a gob of Dicor 501, stuck the brackets onto it, ran the screws down and then put another big gob of Dicor sealant on top to finish the whole thing up.
That will give you plenty of solar power to recharge your stock 12v electrical system. If you also want to purchase and install a inverter to turn that 12v into 110v AC power for your rig, you may want to consider a larger capacity battery bank to go with it. (Check out the Battleborn LiFePO4 batteries, they're expensive but the cost over time makes them much more worth it if you can afford what they run up front.)
If you want to go with a big panel kit, then I'd go with this one: https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Monocrystalline-Negative-Controller-Connectors/dp/B00BFCNFRM
But that's overkill. Way overkill. As the other poster said, USB charging might use 10w-15w total. There's no need to have a 100w panel for that much output unless you're in a super cloudy area or don't get good sun.
Additionally, these kits and controllers are built to work with 12v batteries (car, marine, RV batteries), so just using the USB portion of the controller without being hooked up to one of those is iffy.
I would just go with a 28w camping foldable solar panel. This one won the Outdoor Gear Labs test and is currently $14 off on a lightning deal. https://www.amazon.com/BigBlue-Foldable-Waterproof-SunPower-Cellphones/dp/B01EXWCPLC
There are cheaper ones (RAV Power comes to mind) that seem to be constantly on sale for around $30.
The USB 1.0 and 2.0 standard is a max draw of 5v @ 0.5amp fo (2.5 watt) while USB 3.0 bumps it up to 0.9amp (4.5watt). Most phones will take a much higher current if it is available with 2-2.4 amp @ 5v (10-12watt) being the most common max draw. Quick charge kinda mixes things up a bit here as it sticks with up to a 2amp max draw but varies the voltage between 5,9,12v allowing for 18 watts max transfer into the phone.
Personally I would go with a standard 12v car cigarette outlet style phone charger as they are cheap and can easily be swapped out as phone charging requirements change.
Running an AGM and a normal lead acid is okay but I would definitely wire a solenoid to only bridge them while the engine is running and would add a solar panel as well to keep the AGM charged up to the correct voltage for max lifespan as well as removing the need to run the engine every day. While these are not the greatest option as the charge controller is just okay it would meet your needs entirely and give you a surprising amount of power each day. Using this chart you can estimate that for Texas you will collect about 5 hours a day which with a nice buffer gives you 350 watt/hr per day collected which is PLENTY for most LED lighting and minimal other things (charging phones, tablets, reasonably laptop use, ect...).
for solar: (for starters since Im mainly using fans)https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1501920037&sr=8-4&keywords=solar+panel I'll also use lucy lights which are solar For water: I might use a tank with pump or a thera pump for 5 gallon jugs. It really depends on whats available up there. Sheds: its a toss between this which included installation, http://www.conestogabuilders.com/strawberry/strawberry.htm or the one from lowes: https://www.lowes.com/pd/Cedarshed-Farmhouse-Gable-Cedar-Storage-Shed-Common-16-ft-x-14-ft-Interior-Dimensions-11-5-ft-x-9-5-ft/999916833
the weather : the highest is around 75F and the lowest is around 35F. Rain wise about 4-5 inches every month.
The charger can put out 3.65A @ 16.5V. that's 60 watts. The computer, just guessing, probably uses 50 watts running and charging the battery. Once the battery is charged, again, just guessing, the computer likely uses about 25 watts just running, not charging. Presuming that the battery is charged and you work 9 hours and the battery is still charged, you will have used 25 watts for 9 hours, 225 watt hours. Feeding an inverter 12 volts at 2 amps for those 9 hours will keep it going. If both the power supply and the inverter have a loss of 10% each then it is 270 watt hours, 22.5 amp hours per day, 2.5 amps for 9 hours. This is in the range of a typical efficient 12 volt small refrigerator. This is a hungry computer.
A small solar power system that would be in that ballpark is a 100 watt panel, a charge controller, a plastic box for the battery, a battery, 25' of wire, inverter with USB charger.
$186.99 https://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM/
$20.00 https://www.walmart.com/ip/Attwood-Standard-Non-Vented-Battery-Box-For-Group-24-24M-Black/48659636
$80.00 https://www.samsclub.com/sams/duracell-marine-battery-group-size-24dcc/prod3590221.ip
$12.99 https://www.amazon.com/Grand-General-55261-10-Gauge-Primary/dp/B00INVF40E/
$36.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DP9JE18?ref_=ams_ad_dp_asin_1
$337
The battery I linked is 70 amp hour so really 35 useable (50%). If you do your computing mostly during the day time a lot of the watt hours don't need to be stored. I would recommend bigger if you predominantly run the computer over night.
The PSW inverter I linked has 2 USB charger ports for your hotspot and phone.
All of this can be in your truck with the solar panel on a roof rack with no connection to the vehicle electric system. There is no chance of damaging the truck or needing to call for a jump start.
This set of equipment can easily be moved to another vehicle or used with loads other than the MacBook.
You will need some test equipment: amp hour meter, hydrometer, multimeter
$10.50 https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Balance-Voltage-Battery-Analyzer/dp/B019OHZN9M/
$9.95 https://www.amazon.com/Professional-Battery-Hydrometer-Batteries-Automotive/dp/B019VDATLG/
$4.99 https://www.amazon.com/WinnerEco-Digital-Multimeter-Tester-Yellow/dp/B01N95MSWV/
$25.50
Let's go over a couple terms:
- An amp is a measure of current; think of it like how thick a garden hose is
- A volt is a measure of potential; think of it like how fast the water is flowing
- When you multiply the two together, you get a watt.
A watt measures power, or how fast something can do work; to continue the analogy, how fast a hose can fill a pool. You can fill it faster by either increasing the hose size (ie. using a firehose, or thicker wires), or turning the water pressure up so that it moves faster (increasing the voltage).
When you apply power over a period of time, you do work. We can measure work in watt-hours (Wh). Watts determine how fast your boat moves (just like HP on an engine), where watt-hours determine how far (just like how many gallons of fuel it takes).
If your trolling motor draws 300W, then it consumes 300Wh every hour.
Or, speaking in amps/amp-hours, 300W from a 12V battery would be 25A; in that case, it consumes 25Ah from your battery every hour.
Having said all that:
If you can find a place to mount it, I'd recommend this:
Hook it up to your house / propulsion battery bank via the included controller.
A few notes:
There are two types of solar controllers - PWM and MPPT. Long story short, MPPT is better, but more expensive. It makes the biggest difference on cloudy days, but even then, it's not a huge difference. On sunny days there's little difference. You can select PWM or MPPT on the link I sent.
To figure out how much energy you'll get out of a given solar panel, multiply the panel's wattage by 4. This gives you a reasonable estimate on the watt-hours you can produce per day, on average, in a Northern climate. This 100W panel will make somewhere around 400Wh/day, which equates to about 33Ah @ 12V. That's enough to run your trolling motor for an hour per day. If you have a 100Ah battery bank, it will take 2-3 days to fully charge it from empty.
Generally, you're always better off with a bigger house / propulsion bank, because batteries operate much more efficiently at low power levels. High power drain creates heat within the battery, and this heat is wasted energy.
A 30A trolling motor load on 200Ah of batteries (ie. 2x100Ah deep cycles) represents a draw of 15% of its capacity per hour, and it won't create much waste heat. You might get 4-5 hours of propulsion.
A 30A trolling motor load on a single 100Ah battery represents a draw of 30% of its capacity per hour, and the battery will warm up, wasting energy. You might only get 1.5-2 hours of propulsion (less than half the dual battery setup).
200Ah of batteries would be ideal, but would weigh between 100-150lb, which might be a consideration.
Renogy 100 Watts 12 Volts Monocrystalline Solar Starter Kit https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BFCNFRM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_A7twybFH176K5
Ayy man this is in response to The Van Build Chronicles E5 - Panelling Roof And Walls when you're talking about solar panels. I'm going through the same process right now. The yeti system is convenient sure, but i'd say it's drawbacks outweigh it's conveniences. It's a 33 Amp hour battery which is pretty small, it only allows for a maximum of 300 W, it comes with a small solar panel and is really expensive.
I'm going to go with this: http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM
I'll mount it with these guys and the "IN-D" so the only holes you'll have to drill in your roof is for the wires coming in through the waterproof IN-D thing. Leaks suck.
http://www.amazon.ca/Instapark%C2%AE-Universal-4-Corner-Drill-free-Mounting/dp/B008GYEPYO
The wiring is really not as complicated as you think. power from the solar panel on the roof goes into a charge controller which comes with the kit. power from the charge controller gets attached to your battery. power from the battery gets attached into an inverter.
easy peasy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36kxSRK0Ik
I looked on craigslist for a deep cycle sealed AGM battery and found a 50 amp hour battery for 90 bucks. The only thing I'm still considering is which inverter to get. I've been told to get a pure sine inverter which i've found on amazon for like 130 bucks but this one is so cheap I might just try it anyways.
http://www.amazon.ca/Energizer-Inverter-Cigarette-Lighter-Compatible/dp/B00ATXERNO
So for around 400 bucks you've gotten a bigger solar panel, a bigger battery, an inverter with more output capability and if you want to scale it up with another solar panel you taught yourself everything you need to know about how to do it (except wiring batteries in parallel which is a youtube search away).
For lights in my van i've been using these guys. http://www.amazon.com/33ft-100LEDs-Fairy-String-Lights/dp/B00JTNNQFK I strung them around the whole upper perimeter of the van using little eye hooks and it looks so awesome. I got the USB ones because i've been running them off a little battery pack that you charge Iphones and ipads off of. cheers.
Ayy man this is in response to The Van Build Chronicles E5 - Panelling Roof And Walls when you're talking about solar panels. I'm going through the same process right now. The yeti system is convenient sure, but i'd say it's drawbacks outweigh it's conveniences. It's a 33 Amp hour battery which is pretty small, it only allows for a maximum of 300 W, it comes with a small solar panel and is really expensive. I'm going to go with this:
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Watts-Volts-Monocrystalline-Starter/dp/B00BFCNFRM
I'll mount it with these guys and the "IN-D" so the only holes you'll have to drill in your roof is for the wires coming in through the waterproof IN-D thing. Leaks suck.
http://www.amazon.ca/Instapark%C2%AE-Universal-4-Corner-Drill-free-Mounting/dp/B008GYEPYO
The wiring is really not as complicated as you think. power from the solar panel on the roof goes into a charge controller which comes with the kit. power from the charge controller gets attached to your battery. power from the battery gets attached into an inverter.
easy peasy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f36kxSRK0Ik
I looked on craigslist for a deep cycle sealed AGM battery and found a 50 amp hour battery for 90 bucks. The only thing I'm still considering is which inverter to get. I've been told to get a pure sine inverter which i've found on amazon for like 130 bucks but this one is so cheap I might just try it anyways.
http://www.amazon.ca/Energizer-Inverter-Cigarette-Lighter-Compatible/dp/B00ATXERNO
So for around 400 bucks you've gotten a bigger solar panel, a bigger battery, an inverter with more output capability and if you want to scale it up with another solar panel you taught yourself everything you need to know about how to do it (except wiring batteries in parallel which is a youtube search away).
For lights in my van i've been using these guys.
http://www.amazon.com/33ft-100LEDs-Fairy-String-Lights/dp/B00JTNNQFK
I strung them around the whole upper perimeter of the van using little eye hooks and it looks so awesome. I got the USB ones because i've been running them off a little battery pack that you charge Iphones and ipads off of.
cheers.
Hey, thanks!
I'm going to go into detail on the equipment I bought with my next video (and I've got a really fascinating powerpoint presentation where I try to explain a little electrical theory without putting everyone to sleep). I'll answer your question here though:
I started with a kit that came with the wires you're asking about. The solar panels have those short (2 or 3 feet) wires that end with what's called an MC4 connector. The wires have the MC4 connector on one end, and a bare wire on the other. The MC4 is a weatherproof, snap-on connector.
For the second panel, I had to get the MC4-tipped cables separately. From browsing YouTube, it looks like you can save some money by buying the connectors alone and splicing them onto a wire. I didn't feel like messing with this.
I got all my stuff on Amazon. Here's the list:
- Here's a link to the starter kit I got. It comes with a pair of MC4 cables
- A second 100w solar panel, identical to the one that comes with the starter kit
- These are the extension cables. MC4 on one end. The other end has nothing - you just strip it and screw it into the terminal on the solar controller
- Had to get another set of z-brackets for the second panel too
- This is the in-line fuse holder. It takes any automotive fuse. The solar controller specifies a 15A fuse.
The parts for my installation came out to a little over $400.
Hope that helps! :)
Here's the one I bought: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00BFCNFRM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s02?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Welcome. You have several options for electricity, and it can be kinda complicated to someone without experience. With just a phone, some lights, and computer, you might be able to get away with an 80 dollar marine battery from wal mart wired into your engines charging system. For this to work you need to drive daily to recharge what you used the night before.
Another option is a generator, can be found on craigslist for under 150 dollars. Keep in mind you will need to find somewhere you can run it without bothering people. The only time you must have a generator is if you plan to run large appliances in your van. Things like air conditioning, blenders, and power tools. If you do not plan to use things like that, it is probably best to try to avoid a generator. They take up a ton of space in a van.
Another popular option is solar panels. This is going to be the most expensive from the beginning, but that doesnt mean you cant work around a budget. The best part of solar is the free energy, that is silent. You will need a battery bank, a solar panel and a charge controller. http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-100W-Mono-Starter-Kit/dp/B00BFCNFRM That is a good starting point, you can always add more 100w panels if you need it.
Here are a few articles on electricity in a van, which might be helpful:
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/electrical/electricity/
http://www.cheaprvliving.com/blog/baby-steps-electricity-car-van-little-money/
The whole website is a great source of valuable information to anyone considering this lifestyle.
I cant imagine living in a van with 6 people and pets. I bet it feels like a mansion with all the extra space.
It's a waste of space and energy since he's not grinding dried beans or crushing ice every morning, just pureeing some veggies into a smoothie. Sell it on Craigslist for ~$200 (those things are like $400 new - JEEZ) and you could buy a 100W solar panel with charge controller plus a hand blender that won't kill your battery.
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