Practical use of solar

[Gjac]

I have always thought that solar would be a nice mod to make and there seems to be a wealth of knowledge here about solar. However, I'd like to hear your thought processes before you did this mod. Is there some basic requirements before going to solar? How many days do you camp in a row before you need solar power. If you camp in NF's CG's most of the time how do you get sun? Those that have made this mod do most of you camp out west? Are most of you full time? 90% of the camping I do is dry camping but I always run out of water before I run out of battery power.

[Almot]

Wife is optional but there is a small print making "opting out" quite difficult and expensive.

I don't think that washer/drier has anything to do with solar. There no easy way to do this - even if you have W/D installed in your rig - without going to some place with full hookups. Or - to a laundrymat if you don't have a W/D.

Again, there is a way around this, with way less water and zero electricity, I've seen it in Mexican homes, but I doubt that you will want to do it this way, and 99.9% positive that your wife won't like doing it either. But it works. When you have to conserve water - because you just don't have enough - than you conserve.

[JiminDenver]

In our case we have 60 gal of fresh water on hand and 54 gallons of waste tanks. This is lots of water to us and after conserving for years, it is easy to make it last. When we come out of the hills, it is to come home.

[JiminDenver]

NinerBikes wrote:

Gjac wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Gjac,

Longevity of the battery bank. (provided the solar is properly sized).

This and BFL13's make the most sense to me. My current routine is a week at one place at most. No need for generator, but out of water and need to dump and fill anyways. Need to wash clothes and bed sheets so go to a campground with washer, dryer and electric to charge batteries with 40 amp B&D charger over night. Can't think of a practical way to get around laundry and water after a week. How do you guys get around this(that your wife agrees to)?

In my case, wife was optional, I decided to forgo that option.

Too funny!

[NinerBikes]

Gjac wrote:

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Gjac,

Longevity of the battery bank. (provided the solar is properly sized).

This and BFL13's make the most sense to me. My current routine is a week at one place at most. No need for generator, but out of water and need to dump and fill anyways. Need to wash clothes and bed sheets so go to a campground with washer, dryer and electric to charge batteries with 40 amp B&D charger over night. Can't think of a practical way to get around laundry and water after a week. How do you guys get around this(that your wife agrees to)?

In my case, wife was optional, I decided to forgo that option.

[Gjac]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Gjac,

Longevity of the battery bank. (provided the solar is properly sized).

This and BFL13's make the most sense to me. My current routine is a week at one place at most. No need for generator, but out of water and need to dump and fill anyways. Need to wash clothes and bed sheets so go to a campground with washer, dryer and electric to charge batteries with 40 amp B&D charger over night. Can't think of a practical way to get around laundry and water after a week. How do you guys get around this(that your wife agrees to)?

[JiminDenver]

Gjac wrote:
I have 60 gals of FW and It lasts about a week if there is no other water sources around. After a week my 2 Sam's Club batteries will be around 50 % SOC. I don't need the genset to recharge the batteries for the week. I was just wondering how many days in a row do you dry camp before you decided you needed solar power? From some replies it sounds like some decided because needing/wanting 120v conveniences like TV,etc.

We have solar to run the basic trailer functions first, mainly the furnace, the rest is fluff. There is just so much extra power that it really opened up the possibilities and it's about time too. After decades of roughing it, we were ready for some fluff.

You don't need 120v to watch TV or DVD's. There are lots of low power, 12 volt TVs and players. There are also 120v TVs that use power brick that can be converted to 12v.

[Almot]

Gjac wrote:
I was just wondering how many days in a row do you dry camp before you decided you needed solar power? From some replies it sounds like some decided because needing/wanting 120v conveniences like TV,etc.

Not TV. LCD/LED TV draws very little.

However, there are addictions that cost a lot more energy. You are right that some (most) of these things people "need" because they want it. Addictions can be costly.

Microwave, coffee-maker, toaster, big vacuum are first things that come to mind. You can make meals, and coffee, and do vacuuming without these gadgets if you wish so, but it takes planning and learning.

How many days? I saw people that dry-camped for weeks, without any solar or intention of getting one. Everybody on the camp was happy when those people eventually left and it became quieter 🙂

[pianotuna]

Hi Gjac,

Longevity of the battery bank. (provided the solar is properly sized).

[mena661]

Gjac wrote:
How do you justify solar if you only camp 3-4 days max?

Same as justifying owning a motorhome. 🙂

[time2roll]

Gjac wrote:

smkettner wrote:

Gjac wrote:
90% of the camping I do is dry camping but I always run out of water before I run out of battery power.

I would focus on the water supply and conservation first. The three of us can go a week with our 50 gal on board supply.

For me the excess solar gives DW comfort that we don't have to plug in so much.
So it is different for everyone.

I have 60 gals of FW and It lasts about a week if there is no other water sources around. After a week my 2 Sam's Club batteries will be around 50 % SOC. I don't need the genset to recharge the batteries for the week. I was just wondering how many days in a row do you dry camp before you decided you needed solar power? From some replies it sounds like some decided because needing/wanting 120v conveniences like TV,etc.

In one location about a week max. Yes we use lights (LED), tv, microwave (inverter), furnace etc as we like. The battery will about go indefinitely. Although we have camped in the trees where we get maybe 2 hours of sun so the extra power helps.

Previous to solar the battery was getting depleted and I was loathe to run the generator among the tent campers. Also had issues with the dreaded WFCO not charging as expected. I have left the generator at home for the past 3 years. Have not needed it. If I need air I am looking for hookups.

Planning 3 week trip this summer with about 10 days in Yellowstone. Will be happy to have no battery issues. En route will be hot so we will be plugged in.

What ever makes it fun for you... go for it.

[Almot]

Gjac wrote:
90% of the camping I do is dry camping but I always run out of water before I run out of battery power.

It appears that your energy needs are low, so solar will be able to supply that much. It also appears that you should concentrate on water conservation, be it with or without solar.

I live fulltime off solar - when I live there. Could power another trailer like mine, with 490W flat array that I have. But that area is pretty sunny. Doing it in BC or PNW would be a lot more difficult. In low overcast it harvests just barely enough to cover my daily needs, and they are modest. On a sunny day it harvests more than I need. When you have sun at least 60% of time, it becomes doable. On a dark day you borrow some energy from the batteries, and later solar will return it when sun shines again. I would not suggest a flat array smaller than 500-600W if you are aiming at fulltime stay without a generator. As others noted, A/C is nearly impossible unless you run a generator - there is not enough roof to install that much solar.

[NinerBikes]

Captain Obvious wrote:
I just picked up a 160W portable panel. This allows me to park in the shade and move the panels into a sunnier spot away from the trailer.

Wife and I love that there is no loud stinky generator. I would recommend this mod to everyone.

Thought process:
Wanted power, but didn't want to deal with generator issues.
Too afraid to put holes in roof of trailer to mount solar panels.
Found inexpensive portable system, bought it!

I got mine from Solarblvd, but they appear to be out of stock right now. Now I don't worry about power while camping, its on to worrying about the water.

Did you do a power audit to see what your Ah's consumed in a 24 hour period were, before stepping up to a 160 watt panel?

What are you running for batteries, and how big is your rig?

I ask because I went the same route with a 120W portable panel last October.

[westend]

RoyB wrote:
BFL13-WESTEND I'm hoping for similar results with my two 120WATTs Panels on the front and had planned for a 120WATT on the rear of my OFF-ROAD POPUP roof. I might be able to go with a 240WATT panel on the rear.

Can't wait until I start running some trips after all is setup...

I know what to expect with the batteries by them self so any improvement with SOLAR will be icing on the cake...

Roy Ken

Ken,
If you can fit 360W->480W, you'll probably find that you won't need a generator most of the time. I know you folks use a bit of power with your radio setup but if your use is lower during the daytime, you may get enough charge back in to overnight successfully, not going below 50% SOC. There is still some power to be harvested in the "shoulder hours" of the day. I bet it will surprise you.

[Gjac]

BFL13 wrote:
We started off trying to do say two weeks off grid by doing the "50-90" method if cycling the batteries where about every two days we ran the gen for two hours and charged the batts back up to 90 from 50.

By week 2, it happened that the battery capacity had become less and less each time we did a 50-90, so that by the end, we just had to find shore power to get the batts back to 100% and reconditioned, desulphated, shampooed, etc.

"Some solar" fixed that, so now we can go forever off grid. It seems the batts don't get so sulphated when doing say 85-97s on solar as when doing 50-90s. Apparently the secret is to get closer to 100 (97 vs 90) on each recharge. Not perfect but you can make up the diff every so often by going to 100% using the solar where you let batt voltage climb into the 15s voltage range.

If you are only going out for a week at a time you don't need solar at all. You do 50-90s and then go home and nurse the batts back to full capacity in slow time on shore power.

For camping in the woods in winter here, solar is a waste of space. Little daylight time each day, under trees anyway, so you still need the gen to do your 50-90s except now it is so cold the furnace is eating a lot of battery and solar would have no hope of keeping up.

So it turns out we have portable solar for the nice half of the year and where we camp on the open we get lots of sun and we can do it mostly on solar with a few generator sessions if the weather goes bad for a few days. No more having to go home because the batteries have lost so much capacity from successive 50-90s.

Another benefit of solar, when camping activities are slow at times, and if you are easily amused, is that solar is constantly changing how much you are getting and you can get sort of involved in how it is going like a cheerleader or groupie. 🙂

The battery charging aspect after 2 weeks makes a lot of sense. So 2 weeks seems like the days required that I was looking for. Also if you have an AC refer as westend.

[Gjac]

mena661 wrote:

the bear II wrote:

During the day, I will start the generator about 10am and let it run until it runs out of gas, about 9 hours

Holy crap! Really? Everyday? You are a PRIME candidate for solar my friend! DW and I only camp 3-4 days max when boondocking and we're going to get a solar setup too. Surely you've already paid for it in fuel costs by now. Since you're in SoCal, you can take advantage of the cheap prices that Solarblvd in Norco offers.

How do you justify solar if you only camp 3-4 days max?