Solar discusion thread, is it right for you?
ok so we haven't had one fo these as long as I can remember. lets get a friendly discussion going on the pro's and cons of solar vs other power sources.
I'll start off.
its a given that my p...
Forum Discussion
Would a true test of one’s solar system be having the opportunity to plug-in and not plugging-in?
I am not sure. I think it would be to beable to camp with out power being your limiting factor. the plug in or not would be more if you have enough to run everything or not, but that may not be the intention some one has of installing them.
for example for me, I don't need or want to run a AC when I am camping so I don't need as much solar as some one in a 40 foot motorhome that has the ac's going all day.
do we still rent sites with the 5th wheel that have power, sometimes. If we are in the lower mainland and decide to use the 5th wheel in a 50 buck a night place with full hookups instead of a 300/night hotel then ya I will leave the ac on if we are out for the dog. but when I am camping I am usaly in higher elevations where it may be 100 degrees during the day, but it is cooling off to the high 40's as soon as the sun goes down so there is no need for me to have that much solar. to give and example for the last 10 year I have run 480 watts on my 5th wheel with four 6V batteries and a 2000 watt inverter and I have never not had my batteries at 100% before it got dark. well once I did as I was trying to run my outdoor kitchen bar fridge and found up I was losing about 20AH capacity a day. so, 5th wheel is getting a solar up grade maybe next year. I was going to do it this year but we bought the new truck camper and I have to do that one first as we do a lot more truck camper camping than we do 5th wheel. I don't know what I am going to put on it yet, as I don't get it untill the 9th and I have to get up and measure to see where I can put the panels and how many. I do want to go as big as I can so I can put an inverter in later on.
I am at the point now with 10 years of solar in the 5th wheel and 6 years of it in the truck camper than I would never go with out it. the freedome for how we camp to not have to worry about having power is priceless when you go to national parks at the spur of the moment and all thats open is non power sites, and they don't allow gennys. then there is also the remote forestry sites we are exploring around us that never have power, or anything.. somtimes there is a outhouse and some one will come around selling firewood if there is no ban haha
