Off grid power 101

I don't do a lot of dry camping but I do go to concerts and dry camp for several days at a time. My camper came with a genny and with the OEM 12v battery and careful battery use I am able to go for a couple of days before I recharge the battery. I did however replace the OEM fixed voltage battery charger with a good 3 stage charger for more rapid charging.

Oh Yes, I also installed a 12v voltmeter and ammeter to monitor my battery use.

1) Do some learning on AC & DC electrical systems and how power is measured.
2) Do an assessment of your current power usage.
3) Figure out what you could live without from your current power usage.
4) Calculate the remaining power needs.

Do this before buying anything.
- If you are a minimalist camping on moderate weather, you may not need to do anything to dry camp.
- If you aren't willing to give up creature comforts, a solar system and other purchases may be a waste of money as they won't meet your needs and you will have to buy a big generator.
- Most likely you will fall somewhere in between.

If someone tells you to buy X, given what you have told us, run away from the advice as they have no clue what you need.

This tutorial may be of some help. 12v side of life.

Your battery bank is your bank account in amp hours.

Your charging sources are your income.

System resistance and losses are the banker so you have to return about 10% more than you use out of the bank.

So the first question is how much do you need to withdraw each night.

Some people use a device like a killawatt meter to get an idea of their energy use. You can do that with shore power driveway camping

We often dry camp until the black tank is full. We use twin group 27 batteries and charge them every 2-3 days using our trusty Honda EU 1000 & smart charger. I looked into solar but did not feel it penciled out for us.

I would look at batteries first, assuming you have a single 12V battery now. A pair of golf cart batteries will give significantly more usable power and is about the most economical way to do that. If you have incandescent lights, replacing them with LEDs--or at least the ones that get much use--would also be a significant help at a pretty modest outlay.

Beyond that, there are many variables. If you're only talking a weekend or a few days at a time in moderate weather (so no significant furnace usage) you may not have to do anything more. If you'll be camping in a mountain forest, solar is less useful than if you're camping out in the open and so a generator may be a good option to charge the battery bank. Conversely, if you're in an area with lots of sun, solar is a great option and you may not need too extensive or expensive of a setup. For only very occasional use, it may be more economical to charge the battery via jumper cables from your tow vehicle (of course having it running during the process).

Just go. Even the existing single battery should get you through one night between plugging in. Some conservation may be needed.

Here are some surprises

• Camping with and without your heater going
• How many lights you NORMALLY leave on. Turning a lot of lights OFF (like patio lights) really turns off some folks
• Got 120vac accessories like stereos, TV? They are major power suckers

If you need lots of power for a short time like a coffee maker, microwave, blender, toaster, you have to decide whether to buy a larger inverter and compliment of batteries. Sometimes this is a Quiet Hours thing and not your decision.

Battery maintenance is essential. Standard batteries demand personal at site attention, AGM batteries do not. Do you have room? Do your battery requirement tests then decide.

Solar panel and inverter installations demand good, easy to use instrumentation, and that instrumentation needs to be installed. It's not minor grade work. None of the off-grid work is minor.

A huge mistake often made is to find out you constantly need to upgrade everything from battery capacity to charging system to converter to cabling. This may be the biggest mistake of all, for rookies.

Many rigs have 3 AGM batteries or 4 golf car batteries, a 2,000 watt inverter and a thousand watts of solar. Why? It should be on your job list WHY the owners demand so big a system.

Start with the panels. That'll tame some of your enthusiasm. And also five C notes. A five hundred dollar complete system is about as likely as a four dollar haircut.

We've been mostly off-grid campers, always. There was never a time when we were FHU glampers. So my suggestions come from that perspective.

The two most important things we did to our first trailer, was to install a pair of golf cart deep cycle batteries, and to install LED lights in all of the often used fixtures.

We went with a pair of 6v batteries, but they don't have to be. The important thing, if you want them to have a long life, is to get true deep cycle batteries. Most commonly those will be 6v. We've got a pair of Interstate that are about 10 years old. We moved them from our old trailer to our new fiver. I learned how to take care of them. And, no offense, but charging every 2-3 days is not how you take care of batteries.

The LED is the next step. But it takes some homework too. Some of it is personal taste in lighting. Some are too blue. Some are too harsh. Some create interference with other electronics. Some are not forgiving of voltage variations. You need to try some and see what suits you. Fortunately they are very inexpensive these days. My preference is for flat board with at least 36 chips. I've never liked any of the LED that are shaped like the bulbs they replace. Not enough output, and not directed where needed.

Get a good quiet generator. Use it. Everyday. Try to replace the amps you've used every single day. You cannot do it with a generator, but keep that as your goal anyway. About 2 hours at a time is the best use of the generator. If you can do that 2 hours x twice a day, even better. At the end of 2 hours your batteries will only accept a trickle, and best to shut down and let them rest.

To avoid this getting too long, I'll just let that advice sit here. There is a lot more to it, but most of it is best learned by doing. The advice from Time2Roll is excellent. Get out there doing it and learning.

Step 1 is to get a good battery monitor. I don't know what the latest one to get is, but I have a link-10 that is by far the best investment in off grid camping I've made.

Once you have the monitor, you will begin to understand the relationship between your batteries, loads, and charging. Then you will have a better understanding of what you need for the way you camp.

And buy a bin the size of your sink to do dishes in so you can dump the wash water in the bushes instead of down there grey tank.

That's my $.02