100 watt Solar decision
I'm planning on Boondocking for a few months, plan to run my phone, some lights and hopefully my refrigerator on a 100 watt solar panel charging the Travel Trailer Battery for a short time job. Aft...
Forum Discussion
Brettmm92 wrote:
lol, "power pole princess"
I don't believe I have 120 available where I'm going. And calling the golf course is a great idea, I'm going to do that. And honestly, I would really like to keep the battery at or under 150$. 200$ at maximum.
And oddly enough my search for SiO2 batteries only lead me to batteries that I could afford, but no Si02 batteries. But I believe the Si02 batteries are out of my need/budget. This is mainly just to charge a phone for minimal work use, camper lights, hopefully get my fridge to operate on propane for an around 2 month boondocking job
Do you have or know someone who has a Sam's Club or Costco membership?
If so, both places sell Golf cart 6V batteries for a good price.
Sam's club GC2 $90
You will need to buy 2 GC2 batteries because they are sold in 6V containers. Simply wire the pos of one battery to the negative of the other and walla, you now have 12V! You will have around 210 Ahrs of capacity
Or, you can go to ANY Walmart and buy combo RV/Marine battery in group 24 (lowest capacity of about 70Ahr) or Group 27 (higher capacity around 80Ahr) for around $80.
When boondocking capacity is king and the GC2 batteries often offer more capacity at a lower price per Ahr. GC batteries are incredibly low cost since they are used in literally millions of battery powered Golf Carts which means the manufacturers can build them at a lower cost.
I would recommend you read up on 12V stuff..
A real good "primer" is a two part article called The 12V SIDE OF LIFE PART1
And The 12V SIDE OF LIFE PART2
Some of battery choice also depends on how well you conserve power and how much high current demands you really need.
Low power needs and you could easily getaway with a group 27 for say overnighting, longer than that then two or more may be needed or moving up to GC2 batteries.
Typically you want to avoid high current draws like electric coffee pots, Hair driers, Microwave ovens when running solely on battery power. Those items can be powered via a generator much easier with lower cost for solar panels and batteries.
