Um, more on generators?
I read the closed forum on generators and learned a lot, everyone seems to like champion. I had done some reading and found solar panels are often used to keep the battery charged, and I found a sola...
Forum Discussion
The people that sell the solar generators and most of the solar kits are preying on the uniformed. The lucky ones start researching, the unlucky ones find out that any decent load will drain the battery quickly and it will be days before the tiny solar panel will charge it back up.
The good news is that now that you are interested and now have the opportunity to become informed. You will find there are easy ways to determine how much power you use, how much battery you need to provide it and how much solar you need to keep those charged.
Once you understand a bit more you'll see that the components are much less expensive if purchased separately and unlike a kit where everything is one box before you connect them together, these will come in separate boxes before you do the same thing.
The easiest way is leaving the system portable. I have a 230w panel, a set of 25ft wires, and a controller that hooks to the battery. I set it in the sun in the morning and adjust it though out the day for the best exposure. Off the shelf it would cost around $400, about the same as a 70w kit here. 3 times the power for just a bit of learning and effort. A 100w set up is close to $200.
Currently our set up does well for us. We can run our trailer without worrying about the battery. That includes having the thermostat set at a comfortable level day and night, lighting the trailer end to end at night including the big porch light and we do use smaller inverters to run smaller items.
We love the fact that we no longer use the generator to charge us up daily but we still need it for the air conditioning every so often. Like in solar the first step is to know how much power you need. After that you can consider other factors like weight, cost, noise level and whether or not the color will impress the neighbors.
So now you have home work to do. start by reading up on solar until you understand the basics, figure out your needs and then start picking out the components that will fill them. We will be happy to help out as much as we can but you have to get the process started.
The good news is that now that you are interested and now have the opportunity to become informed. You will find there are easy ways to determine how much power you use, how much battery you need to provide it and how much solar you need to keep those charged.
Once you understand a bit more you'll see that the components are much less expensive if purchased separately and unlike a kit where everything is one box before you connect them together, these will come in separate boxes before you do the same thing.
The easiest way is leaving the system portable. I have a 230w panel, a set of 25ft wires, and a controller that hooks to the battery. I set it in the sun in the morning and adjust it though out the day for the best exposure. Off the shelf it would cost around $400, about the same as a 70w kit here. 3 times the power for just a bit of learning and effort. A 100w set up is close to $200.
Currently our set up does well for us. We can run our trailer without worrying about the battery. That includes having the thermostat set at a comfortable level day and night, lighting the trailer end to end at night including the big porch light and we do use smaller inverters to run smaller items.
We love the fact that we no longer use the generator to charge us up daily but we still need it for the air conditioning every so often. Like in solar the first step is to know how much power you need. After that you can consider other factors like weight, cost, noise level and whether or not the color will impress the neighbors.
So now you have home work to do. start by reading up on solar until you understand the basics, figure out your needs and then start picking out the components that will fill them. We will be happy to help out as much as we can but you have to get the process started.
