WalkaboutTed
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View attachment 22602[attachment=22602
Good day folks,
[color=#000000]I've been meaning to post this for a while. We sit here at the Texas Canyon rest area this morning with the van side solar panel facing the morning sun. We're drinking coffee from the keurig electric coffeemaker and using the microwave and other assorted appliances/devices. [/color]
So what I've found in the last year+ on the road, is that with the driver side solar panel, either facing the morning sun or just to the South all day in the winter, that I'll typically get, like this morning, proportionally 4.4 times the wattage than the top-mounted panels do at that particular time. (Later note-at 9:52am, the side panel output was proportionally only double the output of the top panels)
The simple takeaway is that we get a tremendous solar boost in the early morning with the side mounted solar. And that's when we use the most electricity. Coffee and breakfast.
More info for those wanting more details:
I'm two plus years into this lifestyle, on the road since 10/17. Hubby and I travel together and separately (9months/3 months roughly). Originally we were just going to travel in our DIY-conversion cargo vans. Then I got my puppy. She needed the 21 foot trailer. So we have the three units and we've traveled separately/together in all three over time.
On each of the vans we have two top mounted panels. I am a firm believer in redundancy and overcapacity, so I wanted to be able to get extra wattage in for heavy usage/cloudy days. Hubby and I thought that if we hung a solar panel (with three eight-inch marine stainless hinges) on the driver's side of the van, we could "deploy" the panel (see photos) to add the third panel for the extra watts.
Well, the only time we have used the panel on hinges as originally intended was the first and only time when I took these photos. We have found that by angling the van to the morning or Southern sun, we can suck up all the amperage that we ever need. We use the coffeemaker, microwave, TV, laptop, multiple tablets, phones, Fantastic Fan, Kindles, lights, rice maker, speakers and all of the above not terribly sparingly. Hubby has 450ah AGM (4x6v VMAX Tanks) with the 540 watts of solar, including the side solar panel. My van has 100less watts solar and only 300ah of battery (UPG 121000). I can monitor Hubby's panels better because he has the Victron charge controllers with Bluetooth. I designed (he did the real work) the solar systems on all three camping units sequentially, So I learned as I went along. I have the BlueSkies 3000i charge controller on my van. If if it croaks, I'll replace it with a Bluetooth Victron. But I digress.
We have found that in the Desert Southwest, we have ample power, even in the winter. None of the camping units have ever gone below 12.3v, roughly 70%. Since all the batteries (I have 400ah of the UPG 121000 in the trailer) are AGM, I'm not able to get a highly accurate measure of the state of charge with specific gravity, I watch the amperage going in from the panels (and the alternator in the vans). I assume that the batteries are fully charged when they are taking in less than half an amp per 100ah. I'm able to monitor the solar system on the trailer better as i have a battery monitor that counts the amps (BMV-700). Using the <0.5amps per 100ah rule of thumb, we are generally fully charged before 1100. On very cloudy days, by 1330. Another digression: with the Victron charge controllers, if, l want to get some extra juice in, say, perhaps it's clouding up, it is completely programmable. They have an equalization mode and I have set at the the same voltage as the absorption mode (14.8v). I just open the app on my phone and hit the button for an hour of manual absorption (using the equalization mode).
For those of you with limited roof space, this might give you a germ of an idea to increase your solar capacity. I'm thrilled. I'm really happy with results. You could even set up something like that with a car or SUV, though likely not such a large panel.
There are so many different ways to make ourselves self sufficient. Some costing more, some less. Last winter, I was able to keep the trailer boondocking easily on portable solar panels. But I had to chase the sun and reposition them multiple times through the days. And dust them frequently. This is much more fun. Monitoring it all on my phone is enjoyable (for the warped me). I hope this could make life a bit easier for a couple of you out there.
On a completely different note, I just wanna wax a bit about the Olympian Wave Cat3 heater. I've tent camped down into the teens (Fahrenheit), so I am accustomed to cold. Well, I'm getting spoiled. I run the heater all night (in van or trailer) and it is amazing to wake up in the early morning and not be shivering so much that I can't pee! I am not soliciting comments about running the heater while I sleep. I have alarms. But, I'm old and we're all gonna go sometime, so if I die of carbon monoxide poisoning, at least it will be in my sleep. There could be worse ways.
Ted
