Solar performance #s

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
I suggest looking up the word "adjunct"

99% of the places I used to camp had at least partial shading for a considerable percentage of the day.

On a beach just north of Puerto Vallarta around seven years ago I was invited to a campfire evening party where the air temperature at 8:00PM was around 55F

It was a big group. Some folks from British Columbia, others from Alberta and even one from Saskatoon. Friends were from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. Around 20 people or so were sitting around the fire.

There was discord. All of them had solar panel charging. One fellow even clad his toy yanker trailer with panels.

The issue was too high of daytime temperatures inside the rig. Full sun was needed. And some folks had had enough. They were pulling out and heading for an RV park.

What is seldom discussed in discussions is the heat tolerance or vulnerability of people. Some it seemed get overheated when air temperature climbs to 75F. Many of these folks lived in British Columbia or the wet side of the Cascades in Washington and Oregon.

I can tolerate heat myself to a point. Humidity is a big factor. But I have seen days with no shade where inside rig temperatures climbed to 105F+ with 70% humidity. I'd like to meet the folks who are convinced those numbers are comfortable.

Aside from solar panels high in the mountains, I bailed out of my house when temperatures reached 98F at 6,780 feet. The whole tiny town was complaining. I traveled up up up to the top of Tioga Pass, 9945 feet, parked at 10,000 and climbed straight up. My NIST lab mercurty thermometer was registering 91F beside me in my shadow. I moved into the shade of a stunted sugarpine and it was a shock.

Down here, way way down here, temperatures seldom drop to the sixties. People tend to live around their rig, not in it during the day even parked in the shade. I know of no one who parks in the sun down here.

So with all due respect, claiming solar voltaics is "The Answer" without qualifying and without caveats can be misleading -- even deceptive.

The whole picture should be painted. To me the first priority of RV'ing is safety, followed by comfort.

Heat Prostration For Amp Hours may not be someone's idea of a good trip.

But kudos on your report.

David ... thanks for a great commentary! X2 here.

My take on what you are basically/partially saying is: You need lots of sun for RV solar harvesting ... but lots of sun is often incompatible with living in and around an RV in that sun without having to also have a generator along for air conditioning of that RV. Dealing with those two incompatibles is a paradox wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a conundrum wrapped in a quandary.

That's why we consider it essential to always have an RV generator along to power it's air conditioning - regardless of how many solar watts one might have on board. We refuse to have to move our RV drycamp (or go home) just because the sun is cause for it being too hot inside the RV - assuming that we're in a particular spot for some reason other than for chasing non-hot temperatures. One reason we have a self-contained RV is so us and the dog can be comfortable in places where we can't be comfortable in a tent, so a generator must be part of the complete RV equation.

Maybe our generator can be left at home when affordable solar panels are >75% efficient. :h