Landrover re congigure into a one person home.... my solar set up

[Leaky roof]

Ok, so just quickly, here is the nuts & bolts of my solar set up.

I only need solar to drive my Waeco 50L fridge freezer. I use gel packs frozen in my freezer in a polystyrene cooler which is my grocery box and just swop them out.

A small panel does for the lights... I dont have connectivity when I'm camping, I want to "hook off"thats the point of solo camping... Right?

The freezer draw is 3a / H = 72amps per 24H but I switch it off at night

Its also serves as my flat-battery recovery,  You ain't pushi starting a 2 ton diesiel auto...

The panel  is a suitcase and the pic shows the stats.

My battery is a 110 Ah deep cycle / and power-crank. In my previous rig, I had 2 x110 battries coupled in parrallel, ( a poor man's dual battery system)

Solar panel specs.... Waaay more than I need. At our parrallel 30 deg to the ground plane is the most efficient angle to the sun (see "shakedown"post





Solar panels doing their thing at a dispersed campsite, off grid nobody within 20 or so Kilometers...



My battery set up  in my previous rig

 

[highdesertranger]

dang they make solar panels in South Africa? just kidding. that's odd that a 300watt panel is a 12volt panel. over here most panels over 150 watts are like at least 32 volts. so I take it that's a PWM controller? also are you sure on those numbers on the Waeco that 72Ah's seem way high. highdesertranger

 

[Leaky roof]

EEK! mis represented...
Blooming big business here... Our energy supplier's bankrupt thanks to curruption.......... The panel's imported and put together here...

The draw on the Waeco is 2.8A (let's call that 3A) per hour, so thats a total draw of 72A for 24H
Charge is 9A for effectively 10H of the day = 90A so it keeps my battery well and truly charged

 

[highdesertranger]

yeah but the duty cycle on the Waeco isn't 100% is it. the duty cycle should be about 30% meaning the fridge runs about 20 minutes for every hour which would mean that actual usage would be about 25Ah per 24 hours. I really don't see any reason to unplug it at night.

you need to figure out the duty cycle?

highdesertranger

 

[Leaky roof]

Afternoon HDR

Sorry I missed.

You are of course right...

I factored the duty cycle in as a "margine of safety" and here is why.

before the Waeco (mines got the Grinfoss) I used an absorption freezer. With that bloody thing twice I lost everything: -
The 12v is just plain useless, so I ran it on propane, which is not much better

First time I ran out of gas and did not notice until it was too late, lost everything had to pack up & move out
Next trip: Even though I put it in a sheltered corner in the tent, the wind blew the pilot light out.. Had to pack up and move out...

Ok, so my pitch (static) is very different to what I'm currently putting together. It consists of a 5m x 5m army tent, with my self built canvas caravan pushed in underneath....

Now I do put the tent up alone and I pack it down alone but I won't lie, it's work and plenty of it. (BTW somewhere someone on the forum was battling with this, if you can track it / know who I'm happy to give out the info how to)

Do yo have any Idea how angry I was doing all that for only 3 & 4 days camping?

So when I did research, solar supply VS freezer draw, someone advised to leave the duty cycle out and just work on flat figures. Back then I had 2 110 Deep cycle battries coupled in parrallel, and just flat figures that gave me 2 days of no sun reserve. Now I run 1 x 110 Dual purpose so that would give me +- 1 day reserve.. (flat figures)

Here is a pic of my 10 - 15 day static pitch. 20Km from the nearest "next fella" in a nature reserve (lots of game around) / off grid & solo + my dog. I replaced the sides with 80 % shade-net for cooler, here it was so hot I let the sides down to the ground. The little shelter in the foreground was for my fishing stuff... See the dual purpose of the canvas wind deflector that goes over everything on the roof rack... sometimes the landy stands for days in the sun...





My self built camper is that RTT in the background on a flat-bed trailer.... which I tow up... Never gets folded down like the conventional RTT




SA's first and only canvas caravan (in the grasslands) Previous tug

 

[highdesertranger]

I hear you on the absorption refrigerator, I tried one of those too. for me it was a total waste of time and money. I guess the newer ones are much better, but you are still tied to fuel. with a compressor fridge and solar after the initial investment you have free refrigeration. well except for batteries every 10 years or so. highdesertranger