valhalla360 wrote:
If you have a massively oversized solar/battery system, you can certainly dump the excess power into the absorption fridge (you might check into a 12v heating element to avoid losses with the inverter. If your battery bank is fully charged by 10-11am, you are only using maybe 20% of the daily solar output and if the battery bank only goes down to 85%, that's also much bigger than needed.
If you are building a new system, it would make more sense to look at the loads before building it and size it closer to the expected loads with maybe a 20-30% surplus for unexpected situations. You could have installed a solar/battery system 1/3 to 1/2 the size and never noticed the difference.
Propane must be a lot more expensive out west. Just filled one for $20, so 8 would be about $160 saved...also does that account for other uses (stove, furnace, etc...).
If you are getting a new rig and want to run it off solar/battery, a 12v unit makes far more sense. Probably closer to 1/6 to 1/8th the electric consumption (ours draws around 50w when running and also cycles). Unless it's dead quiet, can't hear it run and even then have to listen for it.
So makes good sense not to waste it once built but I wouldn't build it that way.
The 5 gallon exchange tank is 20.00 here also. I've been traveling and could have sworn I was paying more.
Another thing that will happen soon is the wife will also retiring. Then we will bring 2 laptops and other devices with the two of us traveling more together. The fridge has a tube for another heating element, 12volt I Presume. I would have to make a switch with temperature control. In the summer, the system is overkill but come winter and dark rainy days, I will have some available capacity to charge.
