Hook up at home or not to hook up at home?

My Nuevo (2015) is - like yours - parked on the house drive when not in use. I have an external 240v socket next to it. I made up a suitable rubber-sheathed hook-up cable, and I leave the van always hooked up. About once a fortnight I change which battery is to be charged. There is a solar panel, which simultaneously charges both batteries, but it won't over-charge. The van is still on the original batteries.

When I bought the van (new) I made enquiries of AS and Sargent about the very question you have raised. I was advised that the Sargent unit has a smart charger, which maintains the battery being charged with a float charge, and no harm will come to the battery if left on charge.

With my earlier Clubman, which had no smart charger, I used an Airflow smart charger, which I plugged into a socket in the van and connected it to the cigar lighter and thereby continually charged the vehicle battery (the socket was not wired via the ignition and so was capable of use always). Again, I swapped the battery being charged every fortnight or so (by crocodile clips to the leisure battery). Batteries were changed after 11 years because I got cold feet and didn't want to risk being stranded, though neither battery exhibited symptoms of expiry).

So tha short answer is A, but alternate which battery is receiving charge every now and again. (In summer, the 50% of the charge from the solar panel will be enough to mainatin the leisure battery, so I don't bother to alternate the Sargent setting but leave it to charge the vehicle battery only.)

Cymro

If we are not traveling during the winter and during lockdown we left the the Rienza on hook up so I can put the heating on occasionally.
Changing the leisure batteries and updating the solar controller has help keep the batteries topped up meaning don’t have to worry to much about batteries being charged.

Kdc wrote:My van is kept at home and I find that it looks after itself in the summer months between trips using solar. Once the sun starts to fade I leave it connected to hook up into 13amp socket with timer which comes on for 24hrs once a week. Been fine last three winters and still on original batteries so works for me.

The solar panel and solar controller upgrades mentioned are 100% the way to go, I’ve now done both and it is a complete ‘fit and forget’ setup which I highly recommend.
However, if you don’t want to spend the effort or cost of this then the above will keep things fine over winter. It’s exactly what I did for 2 years and everything was absolutely ok.

Looking back there were no solar panels fitted to the Duetto. Even though I used it for transport to work on my days off it was plugged in on the drive. It was nice to get in it on a frosty morning at half five and be cosy and warm on the way to work.

Agree with previous posts that solar in winter won't keep the batteries charged as we found out when our van wouldn't start on a December morning on the day of our trip to the ferry to Spain.  On the same subject when in Spain there are plenty of long stay campers who leave their vans on permanent hook-up for 3 months.  There's always a small current draw when parked up so watever you do just don't let the batteries go flat.
Rich..

On returning home I turn off and empty the fridge and shutdown the EC700.  This means any charge from the PX300 will go to the leisure battery if I connect to the EHU (as it will on the EC500) which I do if the leisure battery is not fully charged.  Once it is fully charged I disconnect from the EHU.  As the load on the leisure battery with the EC700 shutdown is limited to the tracker (variable but about 10mA), the battery should be fine without charge for up to 3 months.  In practise I use the van within this time when I always connect to the EHU 12 hours before I leave to cool down the fridge.  On the EC700 all the solar charge goes to the vehicle battery when the EC700 is shutdown and in my experience this is sufficient to keep the vehicle battery fully charged even during the winter.  You have an EC500 which when shutdown results in all the solar charge going to the leisure battery.  This should ensure your leisure battery remains fully charged indefinitely even during the winter when the solar charge is low.  Your problem will be the vehicle battery which is subject to a constant drain from the vehicle electrics and alarm if fitted.  The central locking when operated will add to the drain as will the internal cab lights when a cab door is opened if they have not been turned off.  This is no different to a car that is left out of use for a long period.  So your options for long term storage are disconnect the vehicle battery, or, charge it periodically either with an external battery charger or the PX300 when connected to an EHU with the EC500 not shutdown or by taking the motorhome for a long road run.  Another solution in your case is to replace your solar controller with a dual battery one that bypasses the EC500.  This allows you to shutdown the EC500 as before but ensures a trickle solar charge goes to the vehicle battery (which should be fully charged to start with) with the main solar charge going to the leisure battery.  Members who have carried out this easy and inexpensive modification report that this keeps both batteries fully charged in storage throughout the year with an 80W solar panel (providing the EC500 or EC700 is shutdown).

andyb - I have just reviewed the advice I gave above.  Taking the motorhome for a decent road run during long out of use periods is a good idea.  Not only will it recharge the vehicle battery but it will also exercise the tyres.  It is very bad for tyres to be left in one place with a heavy load on them for long periods.  It's good for the engine and its many seals and bearings and the aircon which should also be run.  As recommended by A-S, periodically flushing the water system with fresh clean water straight from the tap (not the garden hose) is a good thing providing it is then drained down again.  In short, even though a motorhome may be out of use, it still needs a bit of TLC.

What it boils down to is whether you are happy to have something sitting unused on your drive burning up mains electricity all the time which I'm certainly not.  I've never heard of anyone leaving their fridge on when the van is out of use, other than for a few hours before a trip.

When the EC500 or EC700 is shutdown, the habitation step won't work.  So if the step is out when you shutdown, it will stay out.  If it's in when you shutdown, it will stay in.  I keep my step out as I frequently go in and out of the van.