Is solar the way to go?

Lexicon7 wrote:
I could not imagine not using solar! I was full time for a while last year in a Lance TC and my single house battery was always full. That's a good thing! At one point I decided to try running my AC and picked up a Honda gen. The Honda was great but I quickly got very tired of the stink and the noise even though it is very quiet for the industry. I have serious allergies and it seemed that no matter where I positioned it, the wind would eventually change and the exhaust fumes would find me again. I soon sold it. For a big A Class where it is built in and away from the "living area" gens would be ok but for me in a TC, not so good.. The sun keeps giving and if our idiot politicians don't screw that up too... should stay free!

I think we are on the same page.

We are currently "camped" on shore of Elephant Butte Reservoir (near Truth or Consequences Nm). Have family and friends tenting about and everyone is happy with indoor plumbing. We run the Dometic fridge on AC during the day but the solar keeps ahead of the fridge. We "harvested" 5500 W-hrs today but were on absorb past noon. It has been cool and did not have to use A/C. Winds were way up and to much for sailing but OK for the wind-surfers.

Worry not, they (the idiot politicians) are busy working to make solar expensive. El Paso Electric (southern NM and west Texas) actively supports solar, quite unlike Arizona, most of Texas and all of OK.

We can run a/c on combination of solar and LFP batteries but choose to avoid the high temperatures. Our attitude is to be "Goldilockders" as in "not to hot and not to cold, just right!" So we go North or higher in elevation to get where it is cool. Three years ago we were in Fort Collins, CO to visit younger son and family. It was 103 in town so we drove 50 miles to Long Draw Reservoir (withdrawn from Rocky Mountain National Park in 1930s to be a reservoir for Denver). The elevation was 10,400' or so, it got down to 38 F at night and low 70s in day. The spot was a "dispersed camping" spot. No one camped for several miles in any direction and the site was free. It was about 30 meters from the gravel road but very little traffic during the week. The official CG was packed. Had 15 species of bird near trailer (3 types of hummers), Moose and Elk within 50 to 75 meters, Coyote wandered through and Elaine managed to frighten enough trout.

Reed and Elaine