Solar & Inverter starting point advice

[kfp673]

Hello All,

We seem to be dry camping more and more over the past 2 years. Mostly in state forrest land with dedicated sites but the sites are roughly 1/4-1/2 mile between each site. This spring I upgraded from a single 12v to dual 6V batteries. Now when camping in 40 degree nights my furnace makes it well into the morning and even into the afternoon vs 3 or 4am with the old 12v. So our current routine is running generator for about 2 hours in the morning while we make coffee and breakfast, and then about 2 hours in the evening as my kids are winding down and watching a movie before bed. The rest of the day and all night I prefer to leave generators off and 4 hours seems to be enough to charge the batteries enough to hold over another night.

Anyway,I'd love to cut that back even further and give the ability to run a coffee maker, TV, and other devices off 12v. Please point me in a direction of where to start looking at inverters. Are there good posts explaining how and where to install them? Also, what size solar kit is fairly affordable and makes enough power to maybe cut an hour or two off my generator running?

Thanks!

[Lwiddis]

“Anyway,I'd love to cut that back even further and give the ability to run a coffee maker, TV, and other devices off 12v.”

Four batteries and 600 watts of solar will accomplish all of the above 98 days out of a hundred without any generator use. Depending on how late you sleep solar will be recharging your batteries before you wake up. The “payback” is you don’t worry about electricity, gasoline, oil level or changes. I’m at 75 days with no generator use.

[D_E_Bishop]

I have two Interstate GC2 batteries and charge them using a Windy City 200 Watt 2 panel solar setup for right at $225.. We can go for several days up to at least 10 and only use the Generator for making toast in the morning and occasionally use it for running the microwave.

A 500 watt inverter is way more than you need to run an average 32" Class TV. My older 120 VAC Sharp TV uses 45 amps of power. The 32" Class Insignia I had in our Bounder was 12 VDC and used 35
Watts. The Winnie has a 100 Watt inverter and runs the Blu-Ray and TV with ease.

The best way to power a coffee maker is use a percolator. If you like K-Cups, use a Cup-A-Joe for 15 bucks from Walmart.

While I may never get my money back on these things, I don't use the genny very often and thereby avoid the ire of the self-righteous Generator Police.

The best power savers are LED lights and I converted 5 fluorescent ceiling lights to two power level LED lights for les than 20 bucks for a 15 foot strip from eBay.

[Ivylog]

Unless you are full time, the payback on solar is never and you can forget making coffee off your 2 batteries... run the generator. Without adding more batteries, adding solar will only help a little.
A 500W inverter will power the TV. The cheapest way to decrease generator time is add a bigger battery charger.

[agwill]

For most of all your questions you can find all the information you are looking for on You Tube. I would have you look up, Renogy is a good starter but there are many others to chose from. From a 100 watt starter package for less than $200 to a 400 watt system for around $600.