Enough Solar for conservative boondocking?
Hey Guys, I looked for the "Dumb Questions" thread, but didn't see it, so I'll post my question here. I want to be able to boondock for 3-4 nights with my family of five on our 28 foot TT. I don't p...
Forum Discussion
Is this a one off trip or a regular thing.
If it's a one off trip, just plug the trailer and run truck for an hour or two if the batteries get low. It's not worth the trouble. (even better if you can borrow a small portable generator).
If boondocking is a regular thing, take a hour or two and plan it out.
- Go thru and find everything that will be running and check the wattage/amp draw when running (there is a sticker on it somewhere).
- Estimate how long each item will be run per day.
- Now you can calculate the total amp-hr you need per day (amp times hours or wattage divided by voltage times hours).
- Take 50% of the batteries rated amp-hr as usable and compare to the daily draw. Let's say you are using 40amp-hr per day and you have a 200amp-hr battery bank...that should give you 2.5days without any charging.
- Assuming the battery bank isn't big enough, you need to estimate what the solar panels can generate. Assume, the rated output for 4-5hrs. So a 100w panel will generate around 400w-h (approx 33amp-hr at 12v) per day. Now you can reduce the 40amp-hr by the 33amp-hr and you battery bank is going down by 7amp-hr per day and you can last a much longer time before finding shore power.
Run the numbers specific to your case. Anything else is nothing but a wild guess as to what you need.
If it's a one off trip, just plug the trailer and run truck for an hour or two if the batteries get low. It's not worth the trouble. (even better if you can borrow a small portable generator).
If boondocking is a regular thing, take a hour or two and plan it out.
- Go thru and find everything that will be running and check the wattage/amp draw when running (there is a sticker on it somewhere).
- Estimate how long each item will be run per day.
- Now you can calculate the total amp-hr you need per day (amp times hours or wattage divided by voltage times hours).
- Take 50% of the batteries rated amp-hr as usable and compare to the daily draw. Let's say you are using 40amp-hr per day and you have a 200amp-hr battery bank...that should give you 2.5days without any charging.
- Assuming the battery bank isn't big enough, you need to estimate what the solar panels can generate. Assume, the rated output for 4-5hrs. So a 100w panel will generate around 400w-h (approx 33amp-hr at 12v) per day. Now you can reduce the 40amp-hr by the 33amp-hr and you battery bank is going down by 7amp-hr per day and you can last a much longer time before finding shore power.
Run the numbers specific to your case. Anything else is nothing but a wild guess as to what you need.
