Why go solar?

[Chowan]

Why go solar if generator/propane is still a must? After looking seriously at fitting rv (when we get it) with solar I am beginning to realize that solar cant keep up with what I want it to do. I want to have a res. refer, tv and sat, computers and cell phone. I want to run AC and heat and cook with electric. Doing all this, I dont see how solar capable to do all of this. maybe with 2000w and many batteries. Am I wrong. I know I can go with propane for refer and cooking and heating and run a gen for ac/tv. SO, If I have to use gen/propane why spend $5k-10k for solar? Is noise the only reason? Cool a reason? Thanks for sharing your point of view.

[allen8106]

I know a guy that lives on and runs power tools on 345 watts of solar and 235 ah of battery and doesn't own a generator. No he can't run his AC but doesn't go where it's required.

[Harvey51]

MrWizard wrote:
There are very few 15 amp breakers in shore power circuits, (some residential ceiling lights)
What is normal is 12ga wiring and 20 amp CB feeding a string of 15 amp duplex outlets

It is also common to find the 15 amp duplex on a shore pedestal to be on a 20 amp breaker

We built a sun room onto our house several years ago. It was wired by the local electric company. Seven outlets - all on one breaker with #14 wire. This was unworkable because there are two watercolour artists in the house who use 1000 watt hair driers to dry their paintings. I ran a second #14 myself to supply three of the outlets just before closing up the walls. #12 would have been better.

Our four outdoor outlets (two on the new build, two from the 1960s era) are on #14 wires. I should have upgraded that, too, but so far no problems. Anyway, this seems to be common in this area.

Mexico Wanderer wrote:
each family has a unique style of living

That is the heart of the matter! I have a nice little 1000 watt generator which runs our home's furnace nicely in power outages. I have never taken it camping. We were campers of many years experience in tents and tent trailers with no electricity to speak of before getting a real RV in retirement. The microwave is a bread box. Air conditioner never used. Never plugged in at a campsite. Camping always was roughing it a wee bit because we could and enjoyed it. We live in a great RVing climate where air conditioning is not a necessity, heating not needed very much in summer. Winters are too cold and too dark to have fun camping. For our lifestyle, solar and propane provide our energy needs wonderfully. It seems a great luxury in a boondocking site, often with tenters who really appreciate quiet.

[MrWizard]

There are very few 15 amp breakers in shore power circuits, (some residential ceiling lights)
What is normal is 12ga wiring and 20 amp CB feeding a string of 15 amp duplex outlets

It is also common to find the 15 amp duplex on a shore pedestal to be on a 20 amp breaker

[BFL13]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi BFL13,

Actually the Magnum inverter/chargers can do 125 amps @ 12 volts from an 1800 watt shore power supply--so they should be able to do that from a 2k generator.

BFL13 wrote:
GordonThree wrote:

"My Magnum charger will keep pushing high amps right to a 99% state of charge... With a 2000 watt generator it takes about 4.5 hours to recharge my 800ah bank from 50%."

I would like to know how this could be done. I can't get the numbers to work.

I believe a 2000w gen can't run a 100 amp charger that is PF corrected, but it can possibly run a 75 amp non-PF corrected one.

My PF corrected 100 amper powered by my Honda 3000 showed this on the Kill-A-Watt (which maxed the KAW so I was lucky it didn't fry)
(loaded voltage showing of course):

122.7v , 15.57 a , 1854w , 0.97 PF , 1910va. Output was DC 102a with batt at 13.95v, charger set to 14.8v.

Scale that up for 125 amp DC output, you would expect say, 2385va with loaded voltage a bit lower, say 120v and so 19.88 amps

The question is how was he able to that with a Honda 2000 generator rated 13.3 amps? My thought is he had something wrong with his monitoring information, leading him to think he was doing that. If he actually was able to do it, I still would like to know how.

I doubt it could be done on shore power on a 15a circuit either, but I don't know what a 15a circuit breaker can take before it pops.

[pianotuna]

Hi BFL13,

Actually the Magnum inverter/chargers can do 125 amps @ 12 volts from an 1800 watt shore power supply--so they should be able to do that from a 2k generator.

BFL13 wrote:
GordonThree wrote:

"My Magnum charger will keep pushing high amps right to a 99% state of charge... With a 2000 watt generator it takes about 4.5 hours to recharge my 800ah bank from 50%."

I would like to know how this could be done. I can't get the numbers to work.

I believe a 2000w gen can't run a 100 amp charger that is PF corrected, but it can possibly run a 75 amp non-PF corrected one.

[Chowan]

wclogger1 wrote:
Exactly, we are in the same basic area and use oursolar all the time, microwave on a regular basis. I have 535 watts in various panels, 315 ah of agm batterries,a pwm controller, a trimetric monitor
A 2000 watt mod sine wave inverter. We rarely use our generator and when we were south last winter at one stretch. We went 60 days, no generator no hook ups. We use blow dryer, tv, sat dish, computers.
The people that are paying 5 to 10 K for a solar install are being seriosly beat up there are way more reasonable ways of doing it.
Bob

StirCrazy wrote:
if you want to do what you stated in your original question then no solar wont work, but with a slight modification , for example forget the ac, use propane for heat fridge and cooking, and AC should keep up fine. I just bit the bullet and put 320 watts of solar on my new 5th and in September up north here in Canada where the solar day is short and the sun is low my solar topped off my batteries every day, which I found out only because the power at the campground for some reason didn't run my converter. I have 470 AH of batteries and in the am they would be down to 12.4 - 12.5V and when the sun went down they would be full again and that was with the furnace running 24/7 as it was getting down to 33 degrees at night and only 45ish during the day.

Steve

This is good to know. Thank for sharing.

[Chowan]

Thanks for all the replies. Your help is appreciated.

[wclogger1]

Exactly, we are in the same basic area and use oursolar all the time, microwave on a regular basis. I have 535 watts in various panels, 315 ah of agm batterries,a pwm controller, a trimetric monitor
A 2000 watt mod sine wave inverter. We rarely use our generator and when we were south last winter at one stretch. We went 60 days, no generator no hook ups. We use blow dryer, tv, sat dish, computers.
The people that are paying 5 to 10 K for a solar install are being seriosly beat up there are way more reasonable ways of doing it.
Bob

StirCrazy wrote:
if you want to do what you stated in your original question then no solar wont work, but with a slight modification , for example forget the ac, use propane for heat fridge and cooking, and AC should keep up fine. I just bit the bullet and put 320 watts of solar on my new 5th and in September up north here in Canada where the solar day is short and the sun is low my solar topped off my batteries every day, which I found out only because the power at the campground for some reason didn't run my converter. I have 470 AH of batteries and in the am they would be down to 12.4 - 12.5V and when the sun went down they would be full again and that was with the furnace running 24/7 as it was getting down to 33 degrees at night and only 45ish during the day.

Steve

[Chowan]

MEXICOWANDERER wrote:
Like running around in a crew of smoke jumpers with a cartridge fire extinguisher yelling "This'll Work! This'll Work!"

A house in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California had a plethora of roof panels. Sixty three to be exact. I talked to the owner. "We have 3 freezers, two refrigerators, satellite TV, fans, lights, and a water pressure booster pump. But when we run the air conditioner, we still have to start the generator. In the summer with two consecutive cloudy days we have to start the generator on the third day".

The year was 1996

Now that is a solar system...but still needed a gen

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Like running around in a crew of smoke jumpers with a cartridge fire extinguisher yelling "This'll Work! This'll Work!"

A house in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California had a plethora of roof panels. Sixty three to be exact. I talked to the owner. "We have 3 freezers, two refrigerators, satellite TV, fans, lights, and a water pressure booster pump. But when we run the air conditioner, we still have to start the generator. In the summer with two consecutive cloudy days we have to start the generator on the third day".

The year was 1996

[BFL13]

StirCrazy wrote:
if you want to do what you stated in your original question then no solar wont work, but with a slight modification , for example forget the ac, use propane for heat fridge and cooking, and AC should keep up fine. I just bit the bullet and put 320 watts of solar on my new 5th and in September up north here in Canada where the solar day is short and the sun is low my solar topped off my batteries every day, which I found out only because the power at the campground for some reason didn't run my converter. I have 470 AH of batteries and in the am they would be down to 12.4 - 12.5V and when the sun went down they would be full again and that was with the furnace running 24/7 as it was getting down to 33 degrees at night and only 45ish during the day.

Steve

IMO based on those numbers, you never got the batteries 'to full again" at all.

Recommend a good monitor set-up such as a Trimetric to learn what is really going on. That is not to say your solar is not valuable. But you need to know where you are really at so you don't get your batteries so sulfated they cannot be "recovered"

[StirCrazy]

if you want to do what you stated in your original question then no solar wont work, but with a slight modification , for example forget the ac, use propane for heat fridge and cooking, and AC should keep up fine. I just bit the bullet and put 320 watts of solar on my new 5th and in September up north here in Canada where the solar day is short and the sun is low my solar topped off my batteries every day, which I found out only because the power at the campground for some reason didn't run my converter. I have 470 AH of batteries and in the am they would be down to 12.4 - 12.5V and when the sun went down they would be full again and that was with the furnace running 24/7 as it was getting down to 33 degrees at night and only 45ish during the day.

Steve

[bighatnohorse]

Chowan wrote:
Why go solar if generator/propane is still a must? After looking seriously at fitting rv (when we get it) with solar I am beginning to realize that solar cant keep up with what I want it to do. I want to have a res. refer, tv and sat, computers and cell phone. I want to run AC and heat and cook with electric. Doing all this, I dont see how solar capable to do all of this. maybe with 2000w and many batteries. Am I wrong. I know I can go with propane for refer and cooking and heating and run a gen for ac/tv. SO, If I have to use gen/propane why spend $5k-10k for solar? Is noise the only reason? Cool a reason? Thanks for sharing your point of view.

Here is the original question(s).

[westend]

Why run solar?
Because half of my RV runs off the 12V system and having solar charge that system is like peanut butter and jelly. I don't have to touch a thing (other than electrolyte maintenance) and solar charges the batteries when boondocking or while in storage.
FWIW, I run a small 120V fridge, all my entertainment devices, and the typical 12V items off 235W of solar and 300 AH of capacity. The only thing I wish for is to have more of both so I can run more stuff. That may come about in the future.