Campendium
After successfully growing and selling their online poker business, Leigh and Brian opted to apply their entrepreneurial drive to a business endeavor they were more passionate about: helping others more easily camp and live off grid in the wilderness. With experience living off grid full time in RVs since 2005, in addition to their online retail and computer science backgrounds, these Los Angeles natives knew they could add significant value to camping and RV communities.
Within a matter of years, Leigh and Brian turned their passion for the outdoors into a full fledged online company, Campendium, which provides RV park and campsite reviews, cell service information, photos, site comparisons and myriad other insights. Campendium has since grown to a total of eight team members, 400,000 registered users and 4.8 million annual visitors. As Campendium continues to grow leaps and bounds, Leigh and Brian realized it was time to upgrade the power system in their Airstream, which doubles as their home and company headquarters.
Leigh and Brian’s power system includes:
Leigh and Brian’s Airstream Flying Cloud trailer is powered by six RELiON RB100 lithium iron phosphate batteries, six roof mounted Renogy 100W solar panels, four ground deployed 100W Zamp solar panels, a Victron 150 BlueSolar MPPT charger, a Victron Multiplus 12 3000 inverter charger, and two Redarc DC to DC chargers.
Why Leigh and Brian switched to lithium:
“We were draining our 6V Trojan lead acid wet cell batteries down too quickly. Lead acid batteries are only supposed to be drained down to 50%, but we were finding that, especially in the winter time, we were draining our old batteries far past that, which damaged the batteries. We just didn’t have enough power or storage capacity. After ten years of living in our trailer, we wanted to live a more comfortable, normal life and use some real appliances, like a toaster, a blender and an espresso machine.”
Why Leigh and Brian chose RELiON:
“Easy: their reputation. We didn’t have much experience with lithium batteries, but knew we’d be in good hands based on all of the positive feedback our friends in the RV community provided about RELiON batteries and RELiON’s excellent customer service. We also liked that RELiON uses the safest lithium chemistry on the market - lithium iron phosphate - which is important, given that we installed these batteries under our bed.”
How Leigh and Brian’s lithium system helped them challenge their limits:
“Prior to installing RELiON batteries, we were always in the habit of turning everything off in order to conserve power, which is less than ideal when you’re running a business out of your home. We live, camp and work off grid from our trailer the majority of the year and are fairly power hungry, given that we’re running our computers for our business all day long. Our new RELiON power system has been a game changer for us. We no longer have to cut back on creature comforts like our appliances nor time to further expand our business.”
Leigh and Brian’s advice for people considering switching to lithium batteries:
“Pull the plug on your lead-acid batteries! Lithium batteries are 100% worth the investment, as they give you more independence and less headaches.”
