Planning for solar installation this spring
My TT comes with a single Interstate SRM-24 battery. We camped for one season so far and never really lived off the battery in any of the campground except for maybe an hour where I didn't plug in sh...
Forum Discussion
Okay, let's me clarify my planned trips this year. We have two trips this year without shore power. Both trips will be one week long.
We don't have a TV in the trailer. I've been thinking about usage for awhile, and came up with these:
6 lights: two of them are in the bunk beds for the kids so maybe on for an hour or two at most per day. Two are in the main living area so perhaps 3 hours per day. The kitchen light is used about an hour per day, and light in over the master bed is on for an hour at most.
Charging two cell phones. Right now we plug them into the wall receptacles. I'm going to install a 12 V DC USB charging port https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZOIIQAO/?coliid=I1RDZ232RP6CCD&colid=2AX6R5XMB9ZVD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it to charge the phones once a day. Each phone's battery is rated 2700 mA.
Coffee maker: We use a Mr. Coffee 12 cup maker, once in the morning. It's rated at 900 watts and it's on for about 10 minutes per day. I did some rough calculation and this will use ~14 amps hours. We also have a French Press so if we don't want to install an inverter, then we go with the French Press which won't use any power.
The only other things that uses power at least in the summer is the Waterpik flosser. This will require an inverter. If this end up being the only thing that uses inverter, I may invest in a rechargeable battery powered version of the Waterpik.
Both trips are summer trips. I know in the cooler weather we will need to run the heater which uses quite a bit of power. How much, I don't know yet.
I read the freecampsite articles. So question now is PWM charge controller is fine now, no need for MPPT controllers? That will save quite a bit.
We don't have a TV in the trailer. I've been thinking about usage for awhile, and came up with these:
6 lights: two of them are in the bunk beds for the kids so maybe on for an hour or two at most per day. Two are in the main living area so perhaps 3 hours per day. The kitchen light is used about an hour per day, and light in over the master bed is on for an hour at most.
Charging two cell phones. Right now we plug them into the wall receptacles. I'm going to install a 12 V DC USB charging port https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZOIIQAO/?coliid=I1RDZ232RP6CCD&colid=2AX6R5XMB9ZVD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it to charge the phones once a day. Each phone's battery is rated 2700 mA.
Coffee maker: We use a Mr. Coffee 12 cup maker, once in the morning. It's rated at 900 watts and it's on for about 10 minutes per day. I did some rough calculation and this will use ~14 amps hours. We also have a French Press so if we don't want to install an inverter, then we go with the French Press which won't use any power.
The only other things that uses power at least in the summer is the Waterpik flosser. This will require an inverter. If this end up being the only thing that uses inverter, I may invest in a rechargeable battery powered version of the Waterpik.
Both trips are summer trips. I know in the cooler weather we will need to run the heater which uses quite a bit of power. How much, I don't know yet.
I read the freecampsite articles. So question now is PWM charge controller is fine now, no need for MPPT controllers? That will save quite a bit.
