new to solar

[sunnyflorida]

:huh: i was interested in getting started using portable solar and a instant pot and a few small appliances - how much solar would it take to perhaps cook an hour with a instant pot?

 

[bagabum]

The average instant pot  draws around a 1000  watts, lets guess that once it gets to temperature it's 50/50 0n/Off . Lets say a full 200 watts to get to temperature =800/2 = 400 .  400+200 =600 watts tp cook an hour. If you had 300 watts solar in the sun actually making 250 then you would need 350+5%  (370 watts) from your  battery and a 1500 watt inverter.  You would need a 12V100aH battery or increase your solar panel size.
=

 

[sunnyflorida]

well I guess I will need to eat rice lol - 6 min

 

[mpruet]

It’s not how much solar you would need but how much battery you would need.  The solar would be based on your battery requirements. 

I have the smallest Instant Pot (3 quart) and it has an input requirement of 700 Watts.  This is probably the best size for on the road van (or RV) life.  For an hour that would be 700 watt hours.  However, an Instant Pot runs on alternating current, not direct current, so you would need to use an inverter which could support a 700 watt draw.  That would probably require a 1000 watt inverter.  (I don’t know of any 700 watt inverters, so would use a 1000 watt inverter to be on the safe side. 

Since most house batteries are measured in amp-hours, you would need to convert the 1000 watt hours need to run the Instant Pot for an hour.  To do that, you simply divide the watt hours by the voltage (12 volts).  That would give 83 amp hours.  If you have AGM batteries you shouldn’t deplete them less than 50%, so that means that you would need two 100 Amp-Hour batteries wired in parallel.  If you have two 100 Amp Hour batteries, then you would need at least two 100 watt solar panels to ensure that you could recharge them successfully, however, I’d suggest getting a total of 400 watts of solar panels for recharging.

However, there is a major caveat...
You want to make sure that you have the batteries fully recharged when the sun goes down!!!  That means that your usage of the instant pot would need to be done before noon so that you would have time for the panels to recharge the batteries.  The instant pot will be a huge draw on your batteries, so you need to ensure that you can get them recharged soon after use. 

An alternate solution is to wire your vehicle’s alternator to act as a charger as well (or use an external generator).  It’s always a good idea to have an alternate means of charging your batteries!!!

Myself, unless I was going to use the instant pot on a daily basis, I’d consider just using a generator to run the instant pot on the times that I wanted to use the instant pot.  That’s pretty much what I do in my rig.

 

[WanderingRose]

I have never tried to run a small appliance off my coach battery, but have bought a 100 watt solar suitcase that works nicely keeping my battery charged.

I use appliances when I am plugged into electricity or running the generator.

I second considering a small generator if you want to run an Instant Pot and other small appliances.

 

[bagabum]

well I guess I will need to eat rice lol - 6 min

Sunnyflorida, your still in the game, do what you want to do.  Make a  folding solar  (hinge two together)so it can be in the sun and  your rig can be in the shade,   (200 watts / $200) a  20 amp controller ($20) a 12V100aH  gel battery ($200 ) 1500 watt PSW inverter  ($300) wiring, fuses  and switches ($200).  The way I size my battery capacity  is I calculate how many watts  I need to make it through a summer  night and be at 50% in the morning. Then I size my solars for what I want to to during the day  plus  have the batteries charged back up by 1:00 PM.   You would use 1/3 of the battery during this 1 hour special lunch, it would be charged back up in 3/4 hours.  Around  a $1000. You will have power for  lights, fans, charging stations, video capability, 12v freezer,  etc. without running a generator or your vehicle.  Of  course you  cant do everything at once and will have to learn about energy management of your system. I personally like LifePo batteries because they are light, protected and can be discharged to 10/15% w/o damage for 100's of cycles. They are about $1 a watt Vs 0.2 a watt for AGM, etc.  Good luck, have fun!!

 

[sunnyflorida]

I am not sure why I said 1 hr of instant pot, I only do this if I cook a large cut of corn beef or something similar, I can make several meals off the one large pot of food - soups are really quick and I more than likely would only need the instant pot for around 20 min max.  Thanks everyone for your knowledge and suggestions.  Happy Camping

 

[vanbrat]

I am looking at solar as I think I may want to change from gas gen to solar, but don't know if I could do my microwave and still keep fridge going. Fridge only goes if plugged in to car right now when driving so most of the time it is not working like I want and we can't keep the gen going all day and all night just for the fridge. I may just have to use microwave at places with power. With the world as it is right now our use of a gen for the trailer joint is not happening right now.
To bad I slept through most of my math classes these numbers are killing my poor brain. But I will struggle on or bribe someone to help with cookies. Or maybe some homemade Jam.......

 

[jacqueg]

This is what house batteries are for. When you use solar panels and/or a gas generator and/or shore power, you use them to recharge your house batteries. It's the batteries that run your refrigerator. And your microwave. And your InstantPot. And your A/C. Etc.

Your rig's starting battery and alternator can't possibly run all of these, even if you drive 24 hours a day.

See whether you can follow this -    

If you're going to be your own power company, you need to understand what your power needs are. There's just no way around this, unless you want to consult someone every time you add or change an electrical gadget.

BTW, don't get rid of your generator, at least right away. Keep it, and add some solar. The more ways you can charge your batteries, the better off you are.

 

[vanbrat]

Thank you.... I think I have some more studying to do so I can do what I want.

 

[bagabum]

Sunnyflorida, your still in the game, do what you want to do.  Make a  folding solar  (hinge two together)so it can be in the sun and  your rig can be in the shade,   (200 watts / $200) a  20 amp controller ($20) a 12V100aH  gel battery ($200 ) 1500 watt PSW inverter  ($300) wiring, fuses  and switches ($200).  The way I size my battery capacity  is I calculate how many watts  I need to make it through a summer  night and be at 50% in the morning. Then I size my solars for what I want to to during the day  plus  have the batteries charged back up by 1:00 PM.   You would use 1/3 of the battery during this 1 hour special lunch, it would be charged back up in 3/4 hours.  Around  a $1000. You will have power for  lights, fans, charging stations, video capability, 12v freezer,  etc. without running a generator or your vehicle.  Of  course you  cant do everything at once and will have to learn about energy management of your system. I personally like LifePo batteries because they are light, protected and can be discharged to 10/15% w/o damage for 100's of cycles. They are about $1 a watt Vs 0.2 a watt for AGM, etc.  Good luck, have fun!!

Is there anyway to delete this crap I just shared.  Never again.......