Solar pay off?

I don't particularity care if the payback is 50 years. I didn't install solar with thoughts of recouping my investment. My only thought was I wanted the ability to go camping anywhere I wanted regardless of power availability. With my solar I can do this.

Rice, that is a tough question. What is the value of a silent evening, miles from anyone else, sitting with my wife in camp chairs outside the trailer, watching a meteor shower without the sound of the generator? How much would I pay NOT to listen to a generator?

I can tell you that we go to a lot of trouble to boondock in total isolation, so maybe you could use the labor expended in that process as a substitute for the market value of the silence itself?

Pick a number.

Now multiply that one-time value by the total number of nights I have been able to avoid using my generator. Hundreds of times??

I think that my point (and there must be one in here, somewhere) is that the intangible and unquantifiable benefits of solar are far greater than the actual dollars involved. I won't say it is infinite -- if someone offered to pay me a million dollars to miss that quiet evening and listen to a generator instead, I would do it.

But not for a hundred dollars.

For those of you who are saying your solar has paid for itself, what numbers did you use in your calculations?

I have asked myself the same question and I think the answer really depends on what you camp in, where you camp and your energy needs. Some on here camp in 5 wheels and trailers that don't come with gensets some in class A's with built in gensets. Some like to stay in one site for a week or more some like to travel and see the country every several days or so. For example I have minimal energy needs, water pump, refer controls and a few lights and 230 AH batteries. In 14 years and 80k miles of travel I have never used my genset just to charge my batteries and I dry camp 95% of the time but I never stay in the same spot for more than a week at a time. I travel more than stay for weeks in the same spot. After 7 days I am out of fresh water and my batteries are 50% SOC so I need to drive to another spot anyway to dump and fill and my wife needs to do laundry. I have to look for ways just to exercise my generator but my generator has more hrs just running at home under load.

After running a generator for 10 years, th past 4 years of dry camping we only ran it once for the AC. Its so nice not to have to haul gas, worry about the battery charge etc. The sun takes care of it al. Wished I did it 14 years ago, then bought a genny just for ac. It more than pays for itself. We have the Honda 3000i and now bought a used Honda 2000i just in case and travel with that. Havent used it.

Of course the rv has a much smaller "foot print" than a house. Mine is 28'5" x 8.5' or about 241 square feet. However, I full time in it--so what truly counts is my total consumption. On a yearly basis, my total consumption is still going to be less than that of a 1000 square foot home, unless that home is incredibly energy efficient.

azrving wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
shelbfv,

I use far less energy living full time in my RV than in a house. My total energy for a 24 hour period on Oct 15, 2016 was 17 KWH. That included hot water, heating, fridge, cooking and entertainment. The worst energy hot was the fridge at 5.7 kwh.

Is the house sq footage the same as the RV? Compare apples to apples RV never wins.

Itinerant1 wrote:
Only the end user knows if it truly has paid for itself no justification needed. A properly set up solar system just operates in the background nice and quiet day after day disturbing no one.

Love this quote. Our camping style to a "T".

For 7 years, we have almost exclusively dry camped with solar. The genny rides in the pass through but last time it was used was 2012 in Death Valley NP when it got real cold and with the clouds, no sun and had to run the furnace. Other than that , the 3 GoPower Girls on the roof, the 4 GC-2 Grunts on the tongue and Big Ivan the Inverter in the pass through provide all of our power needs.

Solar pay off? Just read the quote at the start of this reply and the paybacks from solar speak for themselves.

Dave.

Almot wrote:
In energy per sq.ft RV is rarely better than a house. Poor insulation, and the whole box is made for towing/moving and "camping", - not for living. Though I believe Piano's rig is being run more thoughtfully than many houses.

You can bet on that lol

Thoughtfully yes but when it comes to being green or having a minimal carbon footprint staying put in an efficient small dwelling is the bottom line most efficient way to live.

The numbers would have to be crunched to get a total cost of a person living in 200 or 300 sq ft house but there is no RV lifestyle out there that is going to be less. The life of the building could easily be 100 years with today construction methods and materials where even most vans are ready for replacement after 15 or so max.

So a person could use less energy overall in an RV if we compare to a traditional house which is many more sq ft. To make an accurate comparison we need to compare SQ feet. That why it's also funny to read some off the sarcastic remarks when tiny houses are mentioned. If you compare a well built same sq ft tiny which spends it's life stationary or moves very little and the owner may not even own a tow vehicle there is no comparison.

Some of the trends and changes that are happening may not be totally good but they are interesting.

Compared to how we live now if we actually wanted to put a total effort into actually conserving resources we wouldn't want to even think about what it would be like. I always tell people I'm in the club, let's drive it burn it use it enjoy it. I'm in but not fooling myself.

In energy per sq.ft RV is rarely better than a house. Poor insulation, and the whole box is made for towing/moving and "camping", - not for living. Though I believe Piano's rig is being run more thoughtfully than many houses.

pianotuna wrote:
shelbfv,

I use far less energy living full time in my RV than in a house. My total energy for a 24 hour period on Oct 15, 2016 was 17 KWH. That included hot water, heating, fridge, cooking and entertainment. The worst energy hot was the fridge at 5.7 kwh.

Is the house sq footage the same as the RV? Compare apples to apples RV never wins.