Forum Discussion
Simplygib wrote:
Hi MonaK,
That's actually just 200 watts worth of panels, 4x50.
I am able to do everything I need or want to do with electricity, and the batteries are back to where they were the day before by 10am the following morning. One day it took until noon, but it was very hazy and overcast that day, and the night before I used my laptop for about 5 hours, surfing online and watching a movie. The laptop with inverter uses roughly 5 amps.
It's somewhat overkill for my needs - which is the way I wanted it, in case of long stretches of cloudy days. I have 2-220ah 6v golf cart batteries, but typically use less than 30ah from the batteries daily. Sometimes I spend a couple of hours online mid-day, but on sunny days that power comes from the excess electricity the panels are producing.
I supplement the solar system with conservation. I have LED and Cold Cathode lights, and only need electricity for the lights, water pump, a small inverter for powering the laptop, and charging cell phone and remote control airplane batteries. Cooking is propane and heat with a portable Mr. Heater that needs no electricity. Also my fridge is one of those old ones that doesn't need any 12v power - strictly propane (or 110v when plugged in, which is almost never).
Sounds like you have a great set up there.
The DH & I purchased last summer a very small solar panel to help make our battery last longer last summer. We boon-dock mostly on weekenders.....so we only want to make sure that we have batteries to run the fan on our PUP's heater. Refrig/hotwater heater can both be runned with the propane. It still gets pretty cold up in the mountains where we live during the summer nights.
