What can you do with solar?

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Please reply with what your solar system can do to enhance your RV'ing experience.

Please list the number of watts, Charge controller, inverter (if any) and amp-hours of battery bank

256 watts Unisolar in a parallel/series configuration input to charge controller 33 volts.

Blue Sky 3024 di

2500 watt Cobra MSW inverter

875 amp-hours of battery bank.

Allows me to operate the RV as if it were connected to shore power. The only high wattage item I do not run is the air conditioner.

[NinerBikes]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi Niner,

ummm Do you think six volt jars will reduce the energy consumption some how?

NinerBikes wrote:
I doubt that once I get the gc-2 6V batteries, that I'll be going through more than 45 or 50 A/hrs a day. Closer to 30 or 35 is my guess.

Not at all, but it will increase the level of margin of % of discharge... ie it will take 3x the usage to get to 50% SOC with the 6v jugs, and the Golf cart batteries are far more forgiving if you go a little deeper into their reserves than a WalMart special group 24. 6v jugs are built and designed for commercial day in and day out usage. Wal Mart specials are built for maybe 150 cycles @ 50% for the bass fisherman with his trolling motors., not 700 or more, as in a couple of years of daily use in a Golf Cart, like here in Southern California, where folks golf year round.

Taking 37 amps out of a single group 24 is 50%. Pretty close and a daily routine, albeit the 120 watts of solar is plenty in this case,if the sun shines. One mistake over night or not enough recharging, and it could prove fatal to that single group 24. I'd have more margin with the golf cart batteries, and would keep them in a higher state of charge at all times, assuming same amount of usage.

Why have little jars when you can have big jugs? 😉 With 6V jugs, you can go deeper into their reserve and not worry.

[pianotuna]

Hi Niner,

ummm Do you think six volt jars will reduce the energy consumption some how?

NinerBikes wrote:
I doubt that once I get the gc-2 6V batteries, that I'll be going through more than 45 or 50 A/hrs a day. Closer to 30 or 35 is my guess.

[NinerBikes]

I look weak, but with only 21 feet of travel trailer, and not much TV, my needs are nowhere as great as those with DW and her hairdryer or inability to flip something off (well, maybe me, if I really get her mad enough) to conserve energy.

Went with all LED lights.

22" TV with fridge in propane mode and antennae amplifier on draws 3.9 amps in 12v.

I rarely have to run the heater with a fan here in So Cal.

120 Amps of Solar Blvd portable with PWM charge controller, I am getting a yield of 6.6 Amps at 34* North in mid November.

Currently running on a 10 month old 75 A/hr group 24 that will be replaced with some 6v golf cart version of battery at 210 -225 AH, depending on what it weighs.

175W inverter, just to run the 120V TV at night.

Going to build some sort of LED lamp with a magnifying glass of sorts for enough light to tie flies by at night off the battery, instead of having to run a generator.

I doubt that once I get the gc-2 6V batteries, that I'll be going through more than 45 or 50 A/hrs a day. Closer to 30 or 35 is my guess.

If I go over, or need to run the A/C or microwave, have the Honda Eu2000i. If I have to run the Generator first thing in the morning to play catch up on battery state of charge, I'm going to let 'er run for 1/2 hour or 45 minutes first to bulk charge, then brew some coffee in the electric brewer instead of the French press on the stove.

Do not know if I'll need a different charge controller yet to replace my crappy WFCO 8955... sometimes I think another solar panel with just two GC 6V batteries might be a better use of my money, add another 100 to 120 Watts and get a controller that handles 15 or 20 amps with a PWM feature, maybe a Morningstar SL20-12

Time on the water fly fishing and then tying flies finds me sometimes short of time to want to cook a meal when an occasional TV dinner can be fixed in 6 minutes, allowing more flies to be tied up. Got the Gennie for that, think I can handle the noise for 7 or 8 minutes for a hot dinner of sorts out of the microwave.

Yeah, it's simple, but I'm a KISS type of guy, trying to keep it basic. That's not to say my needs won't change as I gain more dry camping experience.

To every one of you that has answered a question of mine, I wish to express my gratitude of your sharing your extreme knowledge on power systems for camping in some sort of comfort with a few ammenities. I've no fear now of needing a set of hook ups at a trailer park. Some semblance of self sufficiency feels mighty good about now.

[pianotuna]

Hi Almot,

305 watts and yes it is an ammonia cycle fridge. It uses a whopping 4.8 kwh per 24 hours, not counting the "chimney" fans.

[Almot]

You can live in solar trailer same comfortably as in shore home - almost. Mostly it's a matter of "wants" than "needs". 3 big screen TVs running at the same time in different rooms, and lights all around the house whether you need them or not, is something you can't have with solar.

AC in summer is the only thing that IS a necessity in some areas and that trailer-sized solar can't handle.
Microwave it can, with enough batteries - and you can live well without MW.
Hairdrier - and its user - need to be controlled and kept on mid-setting, this is more about whims and having it "her way" than something necessary.

Powerful outside lights all night long is one of those things that I probably won't understand. Unless the area is unsafe (and then I wouldn't want to be there).

Electrical compressor fridge solar can handle, it's a matter of fridge size and power unit (12V is costly but more economic than 120V via inverter). 1600 Watt fridge like in pianotuna's rig is not very common - I think he is running an ammonia fridge on electricity, those really draw horrible amount of energy.

[RickSo]

Don McL wrote:

RickSo wrote:
Just wondering why two battery monitors?

Rick

actually isn't there three monitors?

simple answer,,,

because i could.

don

Sorry, about my error! I only noticed the Magnum BMK and Trimetric 2025 which I believe have the shunts installed for battery monitoring.

[JiminDenver]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi JiminDenver,

PSW it is hard to beat the prowatt $355.00 for 2000 watts. prowatt

MSW the Cobra 2500 watt is $200 NIB on Ebay. It is rated to run microwaves. It does run my Dometic which draws 1591 watts (what were the makers thinking of?????)

Thank you for that Don. I think after getting the panels, controller, generator, LEDs and battery on the cheap, I'll spend the extra to get the PSW this time.

[Don_McL]

RickSo wrote:
Just wondering why two battery monitors?

Rick

actually isn't there three monitors?

simple answer,,,

because i could.

don

[pianotuna]

Hi JiminDenver,

PSW it is hard to beat the prowatt $355.00 for 2000 watts. prowatt

MSW the Cobra 2500 watt is $200 NIB on Ebay. It is rated to run microwaves. It does run my Dometic which draws 1591 watts (what were the makers thinking of?????)

[RickSo]

Don,
That is a great set-up you have there! The large roof makes it easier to fit more panels for these size of systems. Just wondering why two battery monitors?

Rick

[JiminDenver]

Now that I have found us a wee bit of battery, I'm looking for a inverter to run the microwave and Honeys hair dryer. That way we can use some power in the morning and have the solar replace it during the daylight.

[Don_McL]

RickSo wrote:
Here is our system.



We run our RV on solar like we are plugged into shore power and only run the genset if both A/C units are needed which is very seldom. I also switched to LED lights.

ours is very similiar to Rick's (i may have copied X3 ?)

4 -suntech STP170S-24/Ab-1 170-watt solar panel's (680 watts)
1 -trimetric 2025 monitor
1 -TriStar Remote Solar Meter 2 (TS-RM-2)
1 -Morningstar’s TriStar MPPT TS-60 solar controller
6 -trojan 6 Volt Batteries t105's batteries
1 -Magnum (ME-ARC) advanced remote display panel
1 -Magnum (ME-AGN) auto genset start with temp probe
1 -Magnum (ME-BMK) Battery monitoring kit with shunt
1 -Magnum MS2012 Inverter

[RickSo]

Thanks Guys!! I can't tell you how much help the members here and a couple of other forums have been to set the system up. Even having the 2 gauge wire pre-installed at the factory when being built. The factory told me they wire with 10 gauge to the controller and they thought I was wrong going with the heavier wire. I insisted because of my reading here. The system is very efficient and I suggest anyone doing there solar system read these forums for the valuable information it provides.

[JiminDenver]

mena661 wrote:

RickSo wrote:

We run our RV on solar like we are plugged into shore power and only run the genset if both A/C units are needed which is very seldom. I also switched to LED lights.

LOVE your setup!!

x2