Newbie solar questions

Almot wrote:

JiminDenver wrote:
They are my 440w micro generator.

Very, very "micro" ;)
They won't of course run a microwave on their own, even a short time. Microwave would suck 100A current out of the battery (or the balance of 20-something Amps of solar "in" and 100A "out"). Then solar would - hopefully - make enough juice by the evening to put this energy back into battery. Or it wouldn't.

Microwave is a power hog, with 440W solar there is a risk not to get your batts to 100% by the evening after you've used MW a few times. OTH, if I were to use MW only on those occasions when I have an excess energy after batteries are full - which excess I normally do have, around noon - I might as well use an oven. Most common task of MW is reheating leftovers, this can be done on propane same well but slowly. The most sense - meaning, the most comfort - MW would make early in the morning, but you don't have any solar coming in at that time.

The Microwave, coffee pot, vacuum and hair dryer all use a lot of power for the few minutes at a time each is used. The 490w of panels producing 440w/ 34a keeps the 8-D from sagging and as I said, float comes soon after which is where my batteries spend most of their time.

Am I worried that they will get to 100%, not at all. They were never at 100% when we went out battery only, nor when we ran the generator for a few hours daily. They are there to take care of us, not the other way around. They will be pampered in the garage once we get home in a week or two.

Now can we rough it if we need to? Sure we can, we tented for 20 years. I've set up the trailer to be our rolling cabin, not a hard sided tent. Have you seen the video the Wynns put out doing all they do with less solar and bank than I have? I think my video would scare you.

The day starts out with me up early and a run of the auto drip coffee maker. Getting up, hitting the button and having the coffee ready when I get back from walking the dogs is so much better than waiting for the water on the stove to get hot enough. Honey gets up later and will want fresh coffee and we will run it again. For breakfast I like fried taters but they take forever on the stove, so I will half cook them in the microwave to give them a head start. After that comes showers and Honey likes that hair dryer. Since the water is hot we will do the dishes, might even vacuum the trailer if needed. Come dinner we may zap a few large taters or a can of corn and that's it for the day except the TV/satellite but it pulls so little that the battery doesn't know it's there until nightfall.

On bad days the tenting days come back and I make coffee and cook on the stove. We sweep the trailer, Honey does without the hair dryer and the taters go in the oven with the ribs. This way the power is saved for the TV/Sat and charging the phones. I could run the generator but I'd rather do without the goodies than listen to it. (one season of that was enough)

BTW it wont be warm enough this next trip to take the third panel and test run a 5000 BTU window air conditioner. I'll try that when we get home again.