I just don't get it

[RevDen]

Folks,

Here is my problem, I know nothing about electricity, chargers, inverters, converters, deep cycle, amps, watts, etc.  

So when I read what you've written, I don't know enough to understand what you mean.  Is there some way that I could be given advice on simply:

What batteries should I buy?
What charger should I get?
What converter is relatively quiet, yet would do the job?


I know that this must sound like a chump but I've taken days to read it and I don't know where else to turn besides you fine folks.

Help???

Dennis

 

[Almost There]

The problem with that approach is that one size does not fit all!!

Some run nothing but a cell phone charger and maybe charging the laptop occasionally. They need a tiny battery, no converter and with a small solar system, not even a charger.

Then there's the vandweller who runs a pair of laptops 12 hours a day, has enough lighting to brighten a small city and feels the need for on board A/C.

Start at the beginning:

What do you think you need power for?

Then be in for a surprise when we tell you there are other ways of getting that power or that there ain't no way in hell you're going to run electricity needs just like you were hooked up to the grid....  

I knew very little about electrical supplies when I started and my eyes rolled to the back of my head every time I read stuff here. Persevere, take 2 aspirins for the headache and eventually it will start to make sense.

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Lets start with you answering some questions for us first.

What kind of vehicle do you have - car, van, motorhome?  How much physical ROOM are you going to have for a battery & support equipment?

What do you need to be able to run/recharge?  Cell phone, laptop, lights, fan, 12 volt fridge, blender for making frozen daiquiris?

Do you want to run only 12 volt dc stuff, or will you need to run 120 volt ac stuff off the battery, too?

How are you hoping to recharge the battery?  From running the vehicle every day?  Will you plug in to a wall outlet or campground shore power?  Run a generator?  Were you hoping to use solar panels?

That's a start.

 

[jimindenver]

Yep, you show us yours, we show you ours.

Don't worry about not knowing, it's why questions and answers happen. I'm the same way though trying to absorb a bunch of new terms, concepts and answer questions at the same time. I like to take it slow, get a good grasp on something and go on to the next part. After 3 years I finally kinda got it as long as they speak in layman's terms and keep it simple.

 

[highdesertranger]

I really can't add anything at the moment. all great responses so far. tell us a little more and we can help you out. nothing wrong with asking questions or not knowing, we were all there at some point. highdesertranger

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

What Optimistic Paranoid said.

+ How long are you going to run it.  Run a fan 24/7?  TV all night?  By telling us what you are using electrical power for and how long you use it, we can start to guide you to a system that works for you.

 -- Spiff

 

[GotSmart]

On top of the other questions~~~  How much are you willing to spend? 

$50 will get you a long power cord. 

For a few hundred you can have solar lights, fans, and power for the laptop.  

A couple thousand will get you a beautiful system with a freezer. 

Start making a list with the answers to the questions from Almost There, Optimistic, and Jim.  

You came to the right place.  Nobody is selling anything.  (Not even me!) 

 

[jimindenver]

Believe me when I say once we have a idea of what you need, we can help set up anything from a few LED lights and a cell phone charger to a system like mine that runs a air conditioner, electric hot plate, small heaters and a TV that stays on all day for the dogs.

You may even get the impression that we might even enjoy it.

 

[wagoneer]

Just look at your batteries like a bank account you need to keep funds in your bank account if you wanna write checks and or take withdrawals, look at you battery state of charge as the amount you can withdraw, adding to your account by feeding it with energy like solar which you can look at like investing in yourself after the initial cost. If you need an inverter??? or wanna go from 12 volt to 110, that can easily happen. Batteries something to control the amount of deposit ( controller) and a inverter to change your deposits into another currency, Typing this after a day at the mines. I recommend using as little 110 toys as you can it can all be 12 volt it is all available.

 

[BradKW]

Join the club! I started out same as you... fortunately I didn't have to make any decisions and could just work on learning it...took about 3 months before I actually understood, longer till I was ready to design a system. Just keep at it.

 

[akrvbob]

Here is my problem, I know nothing about electricity, chargers, inverters, converters, deep cycle, amps, watts, etc.

okay, here is what I recommend for the great majority of vandwellers and unless you have some special needs, should work for you:
1) Renogy 200 watt solar kit
2) Pair of T105 Trojan  golf carts
3) Cobra 400 watt inverter.
Most vandwellers will be very happy with this setup.
Bob

 

[Vagabound]

Folks,

Here is my problem, I know nothing about electricity, chargers, inverters, converters, deep cycle, amps, watts, etc.  

So when I read what you've written, I don't know enough to understand what you mean.

...

I know that this must sound like a chump but I've taken days to read it and I don't know where else to turn besides you fine folks.

Dennis,

You don't sound like a chump to me.  You sound very reasonable.  Reasonable needs and reasonable confusion.

Despite what anyone might tell you, this stuff ain't simple or straightforward.  Anybody who says otherwise is trying to blow their own horn.  I'm no laggard when it comes to understanding stuff, learning, seeking my own answers, etc., and I'm struggling.  That can be made harder by the fact that some people (not here necessarily, but solar forums, etc) seem to delight in writing a full volume of IEEE standards every time you ask a question and thus making everything as complex as they can make it.  Fortunately, some people are better.  You've encountered a few here.

In total seriousness, from the reading and discussing that I've done over the last year, off and on, I've come to my own conclusion that there are really only four feasible options to get solar power in your van/truck/RV/house ... listed in order of decreasing pain:

1)  Go back to school and get an EE degree with a major in solar energy.

2)  Throw wads of cash at some solar vendor and tell them what you want.

3)  Get qualified volunteer help to do the full needs analysis that most here have been recommending and then design and install a system, piece-by-piece, that meets those needs.

4)  Take a recommendation like Bob's above, buy a few common things, slap them together, start using them, and discover along the way what's good, what's bad, what needs upgrading, etc.  Make allowances for some disappointment and premature replacement costs.

Each one has pros and cons.  If there's a fifth option, I'm not aware of it.

At the present state of technology, people who would score less on the SAT than your dog can buy a very complex smart phone and use it, without understanding CDMA or 4G protocols.  That is the way technology should be for users.

Sadly, solar energy just isn't there yet.  However, just in the time I've been learning about it, it has gotten a bit better, almost as if someone in the solar/battery industries understands what I just said and is trying to fix it. Still, in my opinion, that will be long, slow improvement ... not in time for us.

You might feel lost, but it's a well-worn, and mostly unavoidable path. 

Vagabound

 

[Almost There]

 If there's a fifth option, I'm not aware of it.

At the present state of technology, people who would score less on the SAT than your dog can buy a very complex smart phone and use it, without understanding CDMA or 4G protocols.  That is the way technology should be for users.



Vagabound

IMO there IS a 5th option!

Start very slowly, learn the difference between DC and AC for starters. Learn that electricity is just like water - it flows, can be stored and runs down the drain.

Ask a billion questions and sort out the simple easy to understand replies from the essays that make your head spin! Read the easy to understand ones, figure out who talks the same language you do and ask them to mentor you. Set the essays aside for when you, sometime in the distant future, might actually want to try to understand them.

Even us women are starting to figure out that we CAN TOO understand electricity and manage our systems both design, implementation and usage. Okay, without starting a war around here and getting in to trouble with the mods, we are smarter than the average bear dog male...

And just for the record, the smart phone AND the VCR remain a mystery to me...I probably use less than 1% of the features on the smart  phone and could never program a VCR to save my soul....

 

[Vagabound]

IMO there IS a 5th option!

Start very slowly, ...

There was a foundation assumption to my comments above -- that a person needs solar power now or within a short time.  In that case, Option 5 is not valid.

However, for people doing the long planning thing -- 2 year countdown, etc. -- it could work.

Vagabound

 

[Trebor English]

My wife has a coworker who lives near Philadelphia. She drives to New Jersey to get gas because they pump it for you there.  She does not understand pumping gas.  There is a mental block there.  All of us on this forum (rash generalization) understand pumping gas and can do it easily so the concept of not pumping gas seems goofy.  Different people have brains that work differently.  Need for gas or IQ of male bears aside, some brains have blocks that interfere with life, some blocks don't interfere.  If you have a method to get around the blocks life is good.  If you don't understand plumbing you rent a house and call the landlord to unplug the sink.  That seems normal.  As long as New Jersey has gas, no problem.  Need solar? Find someone who does understand it to manage it for you.  Only if they understand what you need can they help.  If they presume that you understand it, their help will fall short.

 

[jimindenver]

You don't need to be Picasso to paint your house, and you don't need to be a EE to set up a solar system. Yes you need to learn SOMETHING to do either but you don't need a collage degree. Come to think of it, it was because of my ignorance that allowed me to design a system that does what I was told couldn't be.

Bob and I may differ on just what components should go into a simple, small system but they are both very easy to do. Mine has one large panel, two wires going to the controller, two wires going from the controller to the battery and a fuse. The wires on all solar panels are labeled + -, the controller is labeled where the solar wires go and where the battery wires go and of course which is + or - and so is your battery.

In Bobs suggestion it is two smaller panels and pretty much the rest is the same. His does have the advantage of being easy to expand with a third or even fourth panel if need be. It would be the option I would choose were I to not know how much power I needed.

 

[michele0203]

okay, here is what I recommend for the great majority of vandwellers and unless you have some special needs, should work for you:
1) Renogy 200 watt solar kit
2) Pair of T105 Trojan  golf carts
3) Cobra 400 watt inverter.
Most vandwellers will be very happy with this setup.
Bob

Are the Pair of T105 Trojan  golf carts batteries AGM batteries? I think I feel safer with AGM batteries. 

Btw....thanks to OP for asking this question!

 

[highdesertranger]

T-105's are not AGM batteries. but you can substitute AGM batteries instead of the T-105's. highdesertranger

 

[Optimistic Paranoid]

Are thePair of T105 Trojan  golf carts batteries AGM batteries? I think I feel safer with AGM batteries. 

Btw....thanks to OP for asking this question!

No, the T105 Trojans are 6 volt Flooded Lead Acid batteries.  You would wire two of them together in series (positive of one to negative of the other) to convert them into one 12 volt battery equivalent.

 

[RevDen]

Lets start with you answering some questions for us first.

What kind of vehicle do you have - car, van, motorhome?  How much physical ROOM are you going to have for a battery & support equipment?

What do you need to be able to run/recharge?  Cell phone, laptop, lights, fan, 12 volt fridge, blender for making frozen daiquiris?

Do you want to run only 12 volt dc stuff, or will you need to run 120 volt ac stuff off the battery, too?

How are you hoping to recharge the battery?  From running the vehicle every day?  Will you plug in to a wall outlet or campground shore power?  Run a generator?  Were you hoping to use solar panels?

That's a start.

I have a 2014 GMC Sierra PU and KZ travel trailer that is 27'.  I use a C-Pap at night, lots of computer time, I'd like to watch TV some and then there is the normal cooking and living stuff.  I think that boondocking will be more my thing.  As far as charging batteries, I don't have a clue!  I was told that solar panels aren't very effective so I guess I need to buy a generator but I don't have a clue about what kind.  So, I really want to know about generators and what kind of  batteries would be most effective.