What you can do with solar

What impressed me the most is what all they used in a single day and only with the two 6volt batteries. All those appliances they used are power hogs. Of course they were in an idealistic area with no trees, but still given that they do have a generator that they could run to charge the batteries as well, it was quite impressive. Our main issue is where to put all the things associated with it. We can get a couple panels on the roof probably and do the portables like they do, but a place for an inverter like they have and we could replace our two 12v batteries with two 6v, we would want a couple more 6v and have no room for them there. I guess we would lose some of the little bit of outside storage we have now.

Hi,

Best bang for the buck is the prowatt pure sine wave inverter from bestconverters.

qtla9111 wrote:
Very cool video. We're working on it. We have a 230W panel, two Trojans but we need a good inverter. I like the idea that they really take advantage of their solar power during the day. They have a good system worked out.

Hi RoyB,

Do you mean 300 watt-hours? Or 300 amp-hours?

RoyB wrote:
We consistently consume around 300WATTS or so during the one day/night run off the batteries.
Roy Ken

Yesterday, due to the suggestions and prodding of Profdant, we ran our Honda 2000 for two hours to 'exercise' it. We had run it maybe once in the last six months, though we boondock and/or dry camp quite frequently. We were at home and it was in the backyard. By the end of two hours, I was grinding my teeth. It was such a relief when it was finally shut down. I can't imagine having to listen to it for 3-5 hours at a boondocking site. For me, unless it is an emergency, running the generator is just not worth it.

I saw the Wynn's video. They use more power at a boondocking site than we do at an electric site! But, their video made some great points and when we start fulltiming in January, we will be looking for a solar installer on the road.

If anyone knows of a reliable installer around DC, San Antonio or Phoenix please let me know!

Very cool video. We're working on it. We have a 230W panel, two Trojans but we need a good inverter. I like the idea that they really take advantage of their solar power during the day. They have a good system worked out.

We are sort of in the same boat as PHIL PNICHOLS. Our camping off the power grid works just great running all of our needs from our increased battery bank and re-charging the next morning using smart mode technology and the 2KW quiet Honda generator for three hours. We consistently consume around 300WATTS or so during the one day/night run off the batteries. Being self-sustained for the one day/night run off the batteries is not an easy task and requires some planning for longer stays back in the woods.

This fits in rather nice with 99% of places we go to here on the East side of the US where most everywhere has some sort of generator run time restrictions in place.

With the generator I too have no problems whatsoever returning my battery banks back to their 90% charge state rain or shine with the three hours generator run time each day...

Having done this for the past five or more years we have become most successful camping off the power grids. Adding solar panels would be icing on the cake for us and with some planning on the short comings of most small solar panel installs. The main problem we are experiencing with our solar panel planning is having a large battery bank already charged up and using the solar panels to put back power we have pulled from the banks in the 6-8 hours SUN window each day and not have to run the generator the next morning. With the generator run time restrictions in place at most of the places we go to we will have to know by 4:30 each day whether or not we will have our 90% battery charge state for the night run off the batteries. This window gives me enough time to run the generator for three hours if the solar panels are not doing their job. Not having a 90% battery charge state for the night run is NOT an option for us.

I presently don't see any way we would ever be without having our generator on-hand however as small solar panels installs up to 360WATTS or so do not gaurentee a good 90% battery re-charge each day before starting your night time run from the batteries.

I'm sure once I start playing with the solar panels this exercise will become easier to do.

Roy Ken

Here is a simple flow chart.

Budget-->Energy Audit-->Battery bank size-->number of watts-->PWM or MPPT.

Here is a link to the rather special spreadsheet that N8GS has created to help size solar battery charging systems!
Solar Spread Sheet N8GS

For a nice explanation of solar, try this link: Golden rules of solar

We're fortunate in that we can drycamp about the same way, but with a little tiny 650 watt four-stroke genny (no longer available) that just sips the gas and is very quiet. It, along with the converter, can put up to 40-60 amps into our batteries every 5 hour run on it - which takes about 1/2 gallon of fuel. Our AGM batteries make this possible.

The main difference is we don't have to be constantly vigilant regarding our power usage because we're guaranteed 40-60 amps into our battery bank any five-hour period we choose. Solar is of course great as another source, but if we had solar we would still back it up with our small powerhouse. We also use our air conditioning as needed via our fairly quiet built-in genny because we don't want to be restricted to only boondocking in mild temperatures.