Down and dirty solar question.

Coffee maker? Doesn't anyone use percolators any-more?

Dear moderator: please delete this. It took me many tries over three days to post here. I got many "unable to contact server" errors. Perhaps the site doesn't support pasted text into the editing box? Finally I retyped it and it worked.

I am proud of the community of RVers for pioneering the way to more efficient living, at least when we are camping - not so much when on the highways. Our little houses manage very nicely on very little water; many manage completely on solar panel electricity because we use energy efficient lights, etc and are willing to wait for the sun to come out or do without.

Burning gasoline to make heat, converting it to electricity, then back to heat in a coffee maker is drastically inefficient! Why not just use a propane burner to make coffee, perhaps by pouring hot water through the coffee in a filter? An insulated coffee butler is magic - keeping the coffee hot all day with no energy use.

One time we were camped at an isolated lake. Our only neighbour ran his generator all day. He apologized for the noise, saying he just had to keep his coffee hot. Words failed me.

Do get on the highway to the future with solar in place of generators and coal power plants. We found that a single 100 watt panel provided all we need for refrigerator (without defrost feature), lights, propane detector, charging toys, and heating in the morning. The CO detector runs on a 9 V battery. Two deep cycle batteries suffice for a rainy day. A TV calls for a second solar panel. Sorry, no microwave. Use campfire.

The way to figure it is to calculate in energy units of watt-hours. A 100 watt panel produces about 50 watts of battery charging - perhaps 500 watt-hours in a day. A typical deep cycle battery can store 50 amp-hours of charge, which is 50 amps x 12 volts x 1 hour = 600 watt-hours. This battery can power a 100 watt TV for 6 hours. Or a 1200 watt coffee pot for half an hour. (assuming the system can provide the power at the necessary rate and no losses)

smkettner wrote:
10 amps is a bit weak unless you have a single group 24.

Sounds like his is smaller yet - he said 55 AH handles the lights. Get 2*100 AH for 3 days trip, forget about solar, run genny for MW.

I personally would not cater to that evil gas machine at the expense of my wallet and health - don't like smell and noise, and would use kitchen stove. Possibly with a small 120-140W portable solar. No, wait, I already have 500W solar on the roof :)...

10 amps is a bit weak unless you have a single group 24.
I highly recommend 15 to 20 amps per battery.

Panels/generator
Generator/ panels

Think of one complimenting the other

Almot wrote:

JiminDenver wrote:
It will be many, many, seasons to recoup the cost of our solar and battery systems even if we went full time. That's not why we did it, we did it for the silence.

Serious battery bank you need with generator too, if you live full time. To me, "full time" is when you live there most of the year, for several months at a time. As the fuel goes, with moderate use - say, gallon a day? - $80 a month, $1,000 in 12 months, this is the cost of 500 W solar. Enough to get by.

The problem is - I know that you know :) - with generator you'll quickly get battery to 80% but will never get 100%, unless you run it from dawn to dusk and some night time too. That's why the OP is seeing those big rigs running 24/7. Small solar is perfect for those last slow 20%. Not too small of course.

Fortunately, my requirements are never more than 3-4 days at a time. I run a 10amp battery charger while running the genny and if the ride home won't finish the job, battery gets topped off when we get home.

JiminDenver wrote:
It will be many, many, seasons to recoup the cost of our solar and battery systems even if we went full time. That's not why we did it, we did it for the silence.

Serious battery bank you need with generator too, if you live full time. To me, "full time" is when you live there most of the year, for several months at a time. As the fuel goes, with moderate use - say, gallon a day? - $80 a month, $1,000 in 12 months, this is the cost of 500 W solar. Enough to get by.

The problem is - I know that you know :) - with generator you'll quickly get battery to 80% but will never get 100%, unless you run it from dawn to dusk and some night time too. That's why the OP is seeing those big rigs running 24/7. Small solar is perfect for those last slow 20%. Not too small of course.

JiminDenver wrote:
It will be many, many, seasons to recoup the cost of our solar and battery systems even if we went full time. That's not why we did it, we did it for the silence. A smaller system and using the generator dor the big loads would have been much more cost effective.

We go to festivals where power is unavailable and big rigs are running their gennies 24/7. We only run ours to power appliances and occasional ac. The puny 55amp battery does handle the lights so at this point, we do fine.

It will be many, many, seasons to recoup the cost of our solar and battery systems even if we went full time. That's not why we did it, we did it for the silence. A smaller system and using the generator dor the big loads would have been much more cost effective.