I Gotta Get One of These!

[Shadow Catcher]

Bruce I thought you had more than you could use How many do you have?
We will be testing ours on the shore of Lake Superior this summer, tree covered and I an anticipating I may actually have to use our Unisolar 144 W flexible panel (18' long) as everything will be powered from solar.

[bdosborn]

Bruce I thought you had more than you could use How many do you have?

Well that's the rub. I originally had 220 watts with an 80 watt portable panel. 220 watts is plenty for our usage, assuming it's a sunny day and you're not parked in the shade. That covers the two 12V fridges, an endless breeze fan, running the furnace and watching a movie or two. All our lights are LED and they aren't a significant load. Throw in a rainy day and I've got issues. It rained a coupe of days on a trip last summer and I had to run the generator (first time in 2 years). I added a couple more 100 watt panels for a total of 420 watts on the roof. I'm hoping that will help on the low light days. We could skip watching movies in a pinch as that's the number one energy user in our trailer but what's the fun in that?

We always seem to camp in the shade of trees that limit the direct sunlight to the roof panels to an hour or three. I'm hoping the additional panels will be able to cover bulk and absorption charge in that reduced time, with the portable covering the final float charge.

BTW, I've got a Sunsaver MPPT controller in parallel with a Sunsaver PWM controller and they seem to play well together despite what you might read about it.

Bruce

P.S. Our peak nightly usage is about 40 amp-hrs according to the Trimetric.

[eamarquardt]

We could skip watching movies in a pinch as that's the number one energy user in our trailer but what's the fun in that?

You could make your own movies of night time activities. You might want to keep them to yourselves though. Just a thought.

Cheers,

Gus

[rebapuck]

Dump that trailer and use the money saved pulling it on gas for the generator.

[jeff0520]

Here's the first thing that jumped to my mind....Isn't there a college somewhere around where they are? Aren't there always plenty of pretty college girls who would jump at the chance to make a few bucks dressing up in pretty clothes and hostessing for a product video? The virtual voiceover hostess was sort of creepy and off-putting.

[GerryS]

I agree. Totally impractical. Too many problems to even consider. Stability in winds, fragility whiling pulling, complex setup, not to mention if you don't use the pneumatic of hydraulic this'd seals go bad fairly quickly.

A small generator will produce more power, cost less, and per kw/h is probably more efficient than the panels.

It costs a mph or two to pull the extra weight, not to mention the energy it took to build. You might use it ..45-60 days a year if you camp a LOT. That's about 600 gallons of gas for a generator. What? $2500? How much does that monstrosity cost? Over 5 or so years....

Nah, a Yamaha 2400 is 52 db and costs $1800.

No contest. Unless you're off grid full timing, then MAYBE it would make sense. But not even for the hard core camper...

[eamarquardt]

I agree. Totally impractical. Too many problems to even consider. Stability in winds, fragility whiling pulling, complex setup, not to mention if you don't use the pneumatic of hydraulic this'd seals go bad fairly quickly.

A small generator will produce more power, cost less, and per kw/h is probably more efficient than the panels.

It costs a mph or two to pull the extra weight, not to mention the energy it took to build. You might use it ..45-60 days a year if you camp a LOT. That's about 600 gallons of gas for a generator. What? $2500? How much does that monstrosity cost? Over 5 or so years....

Nah, a Yamaha 2400 is 52 db and costs $1800.

No contest. Unless you're off grid full timing, then MAYBE it would make sense. But not even for the hard core camper...

Yeah but generators just don't have "cool factor".

Cheers,

Gus

[GerryS]

But money in the bank does

I really want to build an off grid cabin. Someplace in the hills. This might be an alternative. But I still think in that situation you're still better off with more individual panels.

Too much to fail here.

[bdosborn]

Yeah but generators just don't have "cool factor".

Bingo! It's kind of like this:




Bruce

[Corwin C]

That will buff right out...