tonyandkaren wrote:
Congratulation on your new home! It should be ideal for your plans.
Solar panels are a good idea. You'll be charging your house batteries as you drive too. The generator can also be used to charge the batteries but they're usually very noisy so most likely you won't want to use it much especially if you're parking on the street. Take a look at this installation of flexible panels on a fiberglass roof -http://cheaprvlivingblog.com/2013/02/installing-flexible-solar-panels-on-a-fiberglass-roof/
The Cheap RV Living blog has a lot of useful information so you might want to read some of the other posts too.
I don't know much about the capacities of your van but it should have at least twenty gallons of fresh water and the gray and black water tanks should match the fresh so if you need fresh water you'll need to dump too. Twenty gallons of water will last for four or five days as long as you take navy showers. Here's a good site for dump stations - http://www.sanidumps.com/sanidumps_usamerica.php
Good luck! Keep asking question about anything that's puzzling you. It will all be easy after awhile.
HEY! Thanks for the feedback you guys. If I get 4 or 5 days of fresh water taking navy showers, and then do house concerts on the weekends, I could though use their house to fill my water tank right? (If they'd let me?) I don't plan to use my toilet very much (except when sleeping overnight if I have to use it) - so perhaps I could get away with doing this only a few times a month.
Ok I'm confused about the house battery vs the generator. Why do you have both? Does the generator charge the house battery? So basically, does the house battery get charged while driving, but then, if you run out of juice, you can turn on the generator to charge the house battery? Does the generator serve any other purpose?
I've tried to sign up to cheaplivingforum so many times - but for some reason, once i sign up, it says it sent me a confirmation email that I never receive and I cant figure out how to get them to send me another one. So while I can read the posts, I can't post anything :(
