grizzzman,
I think I do pretty well on the conservation front, although the coach is still relatively new to us and I’m in process of learning and tweaking. By default, it seems to use twice the power that our old travel trailer did under the same conditions.
I seem to use about 60 amp-hours per day at present, above and beyond what the current solar produces. Battery bank is 4 relatively new Deka Marine Master group 27 dual purpose batteries, which appear to have a capacity of 80 amp-hours each. I figure 320 amp-hours total. (I expect to change to true deep cycle batteries at some point in the future.)
The biggest energy saver for us will be to install a 12-volt outlet in the bedroom for powering CPAP, in order to avoid running the inverter overnight. The inverter appears to draw about 2 amps at idle, so I figure making that mod alone should save 15 or 18 amp-hours per day. That mod is on my to-do list.
After making the mod to running CPAP directly on 12-VDC, I figure I will need to replace 40 or 45 amp-hours per day. I am hoping that 300 watts of solar will go a long way toward supplying that, even under less than ideal conditions.
I'm trying to figure out which kinds of panels will be most forgiving of partial shading and less than full sunshine.
Wayne
