I've been living in my van for three and a half years. In that entire time, I have never needed to hook up to mains electric. Not once.
And no, I didn't spend a fortune getting to that point.
The setup
My off-grid power system is genuinely simple:
- One solar panel
- One lithium battery
- A DC-to-DC charger
That's it. No complicated system, no multiple panels, no inverter the size of a suitcase.
Total cost: around £3,000 — and that's on the higher end because I went for lithium over AGM. If budget is tight, you can do it for less with the right AGM setup.
What it powers
Everything I need. Cooking. Charging all my devices. And yes — a full gaming setup. Three and a half years in, it still works absolutely great.
Starting out? Keep it simple
You don't need to overcomplicate this. When I started, I had questions and not many places to find straight answers. That's why I've been doing Q&A and education sessions — because this knowledge should be easy to access.
If you've got questions about off-grid power, van builds, or starting this lifestyle — drop them in the comments. I'll answer as many as I can.
Watch the original short on YouTube.
