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Off-Grid & RV
Van builds, cabins and Starlink setups. What each thing actually draws, and how long a given battery will hold it up.
Know your draw before you buy anything
Off-grid power is an arithmetic problem, not a shopping problem. Add up what you run and for how long, and the answer tells you what to buy. Guessing is how people end up with a battery that dies at 2am.
| Item | Typical draw | Per day (typical use) |
|---|---|---|
| Starlink Mini | ~40W | ~400Wh (10h) |
| Laptop | 45–65W | ~250Wh |
| 12V compressor fridge | 40–60W cycling | 300–600Wh |
| LED lighting | 5–20W | ~60Wh |
| Phone charging (2) | 10–20W | ~50Wh |
| Diesel heater | 10–30W running | ~150Wh |
A fairly typical van setup — fridge, lights, Starlink for part of the day, phones and a laptop — lands somewhere around 1,000–1,500Wh per day. That is why 2,000Wh is such a common target: roughly a day and a half of buffer.
Powering Starlink off-grid
Starlink Mini draws around 40W steadily, which is modest but relentless because it never cycles off the way a fridge does. Ten hours of use is roughly 400Wh — a meaningful share of most batteries.
Two things help. Run it only when you actually need connectivity rather than leaving it up all day, and recharge from solar during daylight so the battery is only covering evenings.
Starlink is the load people forget to budget for. It is often the single largest continuous draw in a van, larger than the fridge, because it does not cycle.
Recommended setups
Van or RV, full-time
Around 2,000Wh with solar input. Covers fridge, Starlink, lights and devices with a day of buffer for bad weather.
Weekends and camping
Around 1,000Wh is plenty for a couple of nights of lights, phones, a laptop and a small cooler.