Harvesting Solar
Please see signature for list of equipment installed and in use. We are currently sitting for 2 weeks in a RV Park in Goodyear, AZ with included electric. I was curious about just how much solar p...
Forum Discussion
StirCrazy, I understand about the bar fridge, but there are other advantages to upgrading solar and batteries. We started out with 1200 watts solar and 618 ah of LFPs. Then added 400 more watts, then I added 2 more LFPs. I'm about maxxed out, not much room on the roof for more solar and adding more would require a controller upgrade.
2 nights ago, I forgot to plug back in. We were watching TV with the fireplace and 2 space heaters running (we hate to be cold). When the water heater apparently kicked on, the inverter shut down. "Oh ****, I forgot to plug back in." By the time I plugged in and reset the inverter, we had drawn 764ah from the batteries. Remained plugged in yesterday, and the solar remained in bulk charge all day and put 5.54 kwh back into the batteries. Sunny all day, so that is the max I can expect from my solar in mid Feb in AZ. BTW, we still aren't fully charged, SOC is up to 78% (cloudy day isn't helping either).
With regard to the fridge draw, I noticed about a 4 amp draw on the batteries this morning with no lights on (and plugged in), so the fridge might not be drawing as much as I thought. So my evening draw is something like 4 amps misc, 4 to 5 for lights and TV, and 5 to 11 amps for the fridge.
2 nights ago, I forgot to plug back in. We were watching TV with the fireplace and 2 space heaters running (we hate to be cold). When the water heater apparently kicked on, the inverter shut down. "Oh ****, I forgot to plug back in." By the time I plugged in and reset the inverter, we had drawn 764ah from the batteries. Remained plugged in yesterday, and the solar remained in bulk charge all day and put 5.54 kwh back into the batteries. Sunny all day, so that is the max I can expect from my solar in mid Feb in AZ. BTW, we still aren't fully charged, SOC is up to 78% (cloudy day isn't helping either).
With regard to the fridge draw, I noticed about a 4 amp draw on the batteries this morning with no lights on (and plugged in), so the fridge might not be drawing as much as I thought. So my evening draw is something like 4 amps misc, 4 to 5 for lights and TV, and 5 to 11 amps for the fridge.
