Down and dirty solar question.
Not terribly math savvy . But, will this system work to dry camp? Let's say, run the microwave five minutes per day (1100 watt), make a pot of drip coffee per day, run the water pump. And reasonably ...
Forum Discussion
You can make coffee fairly easy by boiling water on the stove, and get out three coffee cups.
Put the Mr. Coffee filter inside the plastic holder, and place this on top of one of the coffee cups. Add 2 T of coffee. Pour in a little water - not more than will fit into the cup below.
Add one more T of coffee, and place over second cup, add more water and so on until all is made, then place over last cup, so it will not drip on the counter.
Your engine alternator can supply about 100 amps of power while running the microwave. However the alternator can be damaged by putting out max amperage to often. Also idling the engine can provide less than normal amount of oil to the camshaft, and this can be a problem. So it is best to idle the engine as little as possible.
It is much better to run a generator. You can buy a 2000 watt Honda portable generator at this place for about $1,000. You have to call and get the exact price. They are only about 47 pounds and are used my many RV'ers.
Yes it is possible to run the microwave with a pure sine wave inverter, however they are about $500 more than the modified sine wave inverters. IT would also require a minimum of 200 amp hours of battery storage capacity to supply the 150 - 200 amps to the inverter under load. Also you might want to have 2-3 solar panels in the 140 watt size range. The site listed above, they had 140 watt panels for $229 a year ago.
As for dry camping, the thing that limited me was my 100 gallon fresh water tank would run out in 3 weeks. I could refill my tank with a siphon and hang a 7 gallon fresh water tank from the ladder, letting it flow into the fresh water filler. I would fill up 2-3 of the 7 gallon tanks while out sightseeing. Usually you can refill at a State or Federal campground, or perhaps at a gas station while filling the car with gas.
You might also find this sight helpful. FreeCampgrounds.com
Good luck!
Happy camping.
Fred.
Put the Mr. Coffee filter inside the plastic holder, and place this on top of one of the coffee cups. Add 2 T of coffee. Pour in a little water - not more than will fit into the cup below.
Add one more T of coffee, and place over second cup, add more water and so on until all is made, then place over last cup, so it will not drip on the counter.
Your engine alternator can supply about 100 amps of power while running the microwave. However the alternator can be damaged by putting out max amperage to often. Also idling the engine can provide less than normal amount of oil to the camshaft, and this can be a problem. So it is best to idle the engine as little as possible.
It is much better to run a generator. You can buy a 2000 watt Honda portable generator at this place for about $1,000. You have to call and get the exact price. They are only about 47 pounds and are used my many RV'ers.
Yes it is possible to run the microwave with a pure sine wave inverter, however they are about $500 more than the modified sine wave inverters. IT would also require a minimum of 200 amp hours of battery storage capacity to supply the 150 - 200 amps to the inverter under load. Also you might want to have 2-3 solar panels in the 140 watt size range. The site listed above, they had 140 watt panels for $229 a year ago.
As for dry camping, the thing that limited me was my 100 gallon fresh water tank would run out in 3 weeks. I could refill my tank with a siphon and hang a 7 gallon fresh water tank from the ladder, letting it flow into the fresh water filler. I would fill up 2-3 of the 7 gallon tanks while out sightseeing. Usually you can refill at a State or Federal campground, or perhaps at a gas station while filling the car with gas.
You might also find this sight helpful. FreeCampgrounds.com
Good luck!
Happy camping.
Fred.
