Solar. What Can It Do?

By my calculation, we have 649 watts on the roof
From sundown to sun up we use approx 130 amp hours, approx 1.6Kw hrs overnight use
Lights, fans, tv, pc, fridge ..residential 120vac

Our solar is not enough to supply day time use and recharge / replace the overnight use
We run the generator almost everyday
We can skip a rainy day if we have to, and do extra charge time the next day
Everybody has different power use habits aka needs

I live in a house that has averaged 2 point 5kWh / day for the last five years. Which is a perfect example of partial (incomplete) information.

Boon Docker wrote:
You are a power hog! :)
We spent very little time in the trailer, I guess that is why we never have a shortage of power with 200 watts.

I am.

I spend time outside too, but not on crappy rainy days. I do a lot of TV recording when I can so that if I'm in trees or just overnighting I have plenty to watch when I don't want to set up the dish.

2oldman wrote:

Boon Docker wrote:
The people think you can not get by with 200 watts are totally wrong. If you want to watch TV for 8 hours a day, listen to the sound system, run your Kuerig etc then that is a totally different scenario.

Of course you can 'get by', and yes, TV on all day is a totally different story. Different stories are what, I think, people asking about solar need. Thanks for your details.

I'm a power hog. My tv and Directv tuner are on all day recording, not watching. Electric coffee in the morning, bits of MW use, furnace, mattress heater, radio.. etc. I like to be almost as I am at home.

With 800+ watts of solar I still need generator time due to cloudy conditions or trees. The sun is at a lower angle now, so I'm getting maybe 350w instead of anything close to 700 or so. With just 200w it would be a pittance amount of charging.

You are a power hog! :)
We spent very little time in the trailer, I guess that is why we never have a shortage of power with 200 watts.

I learned fast forty years ago living in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. High heat came around the 20th of August. At 7,000 ft the daytime temp climbed into the mid-nineties. So I packed up fishing gear, lunch, a mercury thermometer and a malamute.

High, higher, then really high I first drove then hiked. Finally at Gardiski lake, I tossed the pack into the shade of a stunted pine, sat down and proceeded to catch 10 small brook trout. Out came the grille, and between the dog and myself we downed them all then proceeded to catch another 10 for trout sandwiches the next day.

It was hot! I reached into the pack and extracted the thermometer. Eighty-eight degrees! We headed back down the switchback trail to blazing summer temps. At altitude the sun seems to "burn" more. That night, back home the temp managed to drop to 78 degrees. The news claimed the freezing level was above 19,000 ft.

There are so many permutations of possible loads / time, versus lifestyles that I treat broad-brush statements like my friends "My C-20 4X4 gets 19-mpg". It's possible. Heading down off of Donner Summit driving 45 mph with a 40 knot tail wind.

The reason that clear statements should be taken with a grain of salt is a reader may copy such a system then find out everything from wire to controller needs to be upgraded for his lifestyle and if the upgrade demands MPPT 100% of his purchase was made in vain. It's like a tow vehicle claim "Well, ah tows my 9,000 lb fifth wheel and ah don't need no stinkin' high horsepower engine"

Where do you live sir?

Virginia

And your advice applies to folks living in Colorado, the Cascades and the Sierra Nevada?

Sure. Why shouldn't it?

Ever been there?

Ah don't need to go there

Thanks, very thorough.

What's not mentioned yet is the condition of batteries when boondocking. Older and harder-used ones lose ah capacity, requiring more solar time. Colder batteries don't perform as well. It's difficult to ever get 100% charge into them like I can on the grid. Sure, you can if you don't use much power, but that's not my style.

I don't conserve propane or water either.

If details are desired, I live on 650 watts of panels.

My full energy audit is available here.

I work full-time so laptop runs about 10 hours/day. I have a satellite receiver but rarely use it - maybe a month or two during the winter.

I run a BiPAP machine about 8 hours, every night.

Summer/when power is available in excess:
I am at high altitude. I watch TV a couple hours per day at most (TV, tuner, digital media player). I use electric coffee maker (one pot per day). Microwave to warm/thaw things. Charge laptop, phone, tablets, cameras, etc. I run ceiling roof vent/fan and Endless Breeze fan if it is warm. LED lights are not used much. Refrigerator/freezer run all the time (LP).

Winter/when power is in short supply:
I am in the southwest, low altitude. I watch TV a couple hours per day at most (TV, tuner, digital media player - maybe satellite receiver). I use stove top coffee maker (not electric). Microwave to warm/thaw things. Charge laptop, phone, tablets, cameras, etc. LED lights are used several hours per day as light is in short supply. I set furnace to about 45 degrees overnight, warm things up to 65 when I wake, then shut it off (outside daily high temps typically around 60 degrees, overnight lows 35-ish - obviously varies). Refrigerator/freezer run all the time (LP).

Water pump use is pretty much the same all year.

Slides are electric but I don't bother to account for that power as they are only used when engine has just been shut down or about to be started (engine charges battery bank).

JFNM wrote:
I'm from the part of the country that would say/ask something like: "I do not understand how you are making that work, could you please provide some details to help me understand?"

That had already been asked with no response. If I remove the living in a tent statement, would that make you happy?

2oldman wrote:
It's a veiled challenge for the poster who made that statement to supply some details.

Ok, guess I am from a different part of the country or something. I don't generally feel a need to "challenge" people never mind to wrap it in a veil - particularly via email/forums where it is impossible to "hear" the "tone" of the message. I'm from the part of the country that would say/ask something like: "I do not understand how you are making that work, could you please provide some details to help me understand?"

Boon Docker wrote:
The people think you can not get by with 200 watts are totally wrong. If you want to watch TV for 8 hours a day, listen to the sound system, run your Kuerig etc then that is a totally different scenario.

Of course you can 'get by', and yes, TV on all day is a totally different story. Different stories are what, I think, people asking about solar need. Thanks for your details.

I'm a power hog. My tv and Directv tuner are on all day recording, not watching. Electric coffee in the morning, bits of MW use, furnace, mattress heater, radio.. etc. I like to be almost as I am at home.

With 800+ watts of solar I still need generator time due to cloudy conditions or trees. The sun is at a lower angle now, so I'm getting maybe 350w instead of anything close to 700 or so. With just 200w it would be a pittance amount of charging.