spoon059 wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:
The idea of spending thousands and thousands of Dollars on solar and battery in order to run A/C to avoid paying $20-$30 per night unless you are full timing is funny to say the least..
For my purposes, I want to be able to boondock out in the wilderness. The pictures you see in RV magazines of a camper out in the middle of nowhere, on the bank of a river... I'd like to be able to do that a couple of times when I take the family on our cross country trip. But I'm a finely tuned machine, much like a Lamborghini, and require certain things... like air conditioning when I'm sleeping!
But I agree, the several thousand dollar cost of being able to do that AND be essentially noiseless just isn't worth it in my mind. I am generally quite aware of people around me and I try my best not to do things that may annoy them. I'd really like an affordable way to have some battery bank to run the AC overnight. If I can't do it any way other than a 2200 watt Honda generator, then I might have to make a little more noise than potential neighbors might want to hear.
Thankfully for them, I'll only be there 1 or 2 nights before I move on!
I can picture that kind of camping spot, but unfortunately in a practical sense using a gen is the lesser of the evils for heavy loads like A/C.
From what I gathered from the one 48V DC A/C unit (which boasts a higher efficiency than standard A/C units), they recommended 2,500W (10 250W panels) worth of solar and that was just to cover the A/C unit. You would still need additional wattage to cover your camping needs. That isn't including batteries, controller and DC A/C cost.. Even if you managed to get the panels for a $1 per Watt that is $2,500-$3,000 plus everything else.. A very expensive proposition just to say you can run a A/C from batteries. I think the average RV owner will have a difficult time swallowing that bitter pill of reality..
Batteries and solar has improved, but still not there for running heavy loads cost and space wise for the limited space a RV offers.
But to some, it seems like boasting and bragging rights that they do not need a generator to run A/C takes precedence and don't mind spending that kind of money. Sounds cool but not real practical if you don't want to go broke on a RV..
