skyguy
Well-known member
This will be our 5th season in our Bighorn. We dry camp about 80-85% of the time. We have a 2k Honda generator that provides all the electricity we need. (if you camp in the mountains of Colorado, you hardly EVER need your air conditioner!) However, we are tired of the NOISE, even from a pretty quiet generator!
So I began our quest to install SOLAR power, to charge the batteries, and a inverter to provide AC power when we need it. The Heartland forum is an excellent resource, but severely lacking in solar information! So over the next couple of weeks, I hope to pass on some helpful information.
I don't have an endless bank account, so the plan is to setup solar and an inverter, all for under $2000. This may sound like an impossible task for that dollar amount, but to start with, I will not need to ever run our air conditioner, no coffee maker, and nothing else I can think of that will require LARGE amounts of power. We have a need for heat, in the early spring and late fall, I have budgeted for use of the Bighorn's furnace for that. Occasional use of the microwave. Several hours of TV for entertainment, and of course recharging LOTS of electronics.
I used a calculator at GO-Power's website and figured we would use about 60 AH (amphours) a day, AVERAGE. I sized the solar charging system to provide 60 AH of charge per day in the spring and fall, and up to 75 AH on days of maximum sunlight (summer). So we should be on an equal DAILY basis, and most times we are only camping for 2 - 3 days, so the system has 4 - 5 days to fully recover.
Here's a couple of blogs to get you started on information OVERLOAD:
http://www.jackdanmayer.com/rv_electrical_and_solar.htm
http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/
Once I absorbed this information, I purchased:
200 watt solar panel system from Windy Nation I am a little suspect regarding the charge controller, but at $49 I'm not out much if it doesn't work properly.
2000 watt Samlex Pure Sine Wave inverter with remote. John Mayer insists you can get by with a MODIFIED sine wave inverter, I disagree.
5 feet of 2/0 gauge welding wire - to go from the batteries to the inverter.
Trimetric 2030 monitor. This is a must have on most lists. The 2030 has just started shipping, updating the 2020 and 2025. I'm hoping this will tell me if the $49 charge controller is doing its job, or if I will have to invest in a more expensive controller.
20 feet of 10 gauge stranded wire. This replaces the 12 gauge wire that shipped with the solar panel. One of the axioms I learned was to ALWAYS size up your wire!
So far, I'm in for around $1200. If this setup works, I'll be thrilled. Installation (and the ensuing reports/photos) will hopefully begin this coming weekend. I was going to install the solar panel system this last weekend, but our usual spring weather (in Colorado, that's the NICE way of saying 6 inches of snow) has me delayed.
To be continued.
So I began our quest to install SOLAR power, to charge the batteries, and a inverter to provide AC power when we need it. The Heartland forum is an excellent resource, but severely lacking in solar information! So over the next couple of weeks, I hope to pass on some helpful information.
I don't have an endless bank account, so the plan is to setup solar and an inverter, all for under $2000. This may sound like an impossible task for that dollar amount, but to start with, I will not need to ever run our air conditioner, no coffee maker, and nothing else I can think of that will require LARGE amounts of power. We have a need for heat, in the early spring and late fall, I have budgeted for use of the Bighorn's furnace for that. Occasional use of the microwave. Several hours of TV for entertainment, and of course recharging LOTS of electronics.
I used a calculator at GO-Power's website and figured we would use about 60 AH (amphours) a day, AVERAGE. I sized the solar charging system to provide 60 AH of charge per day in the spring and fall, and up to 75 AH on days of maximum sunlight (summer). So we should be on an equal DAILY basis, and most times we are only camping for 2 - 3 days, so the system has 4 - 5 days to fully recover.
Here's a couple of blogs to get you started on information OVERLOAD:
http://www.jackdanmayer.com/rv_electrical_and_solar.htm
http://handybobsolar.wordpress.com/
Once I absorbed this information, I purchased:
200 watt solar panel system from Windy Nation I am a little suspect regarding the charge controller, but at $49 I'm not out much if it doesn't work properly.
2000 watt Samlex Pure Sine Wave inverter with remote. John Mayer insists you can get by with a MODIFIED sine wave inverter, I disagree.
5 feet of 2/0 gauge welding wire - to go from the batteries to the inverter.
Trimetric 2030 monitor. This is a must have on most lists. The 2030 has just started shipping, updating the 2020 and 2025. I'm hoping this will tell me if the $49 charge controller is doing its job, or if I will have to invest in a more expensive controller.
20 feet of 10 gauge stranded wire. This replaces the 12 gauge wire that shipped with the solar panel. One of the axioms I learned was to ALWAYS size up your wire!
So far, I'm in for around $1200. If this setup works, I'll be thrilled. Installation (and the ensuing reports/photos) will hopefully begin this coming weekend. I was going to install the solar panel system this last weekend, but our usual spring weather (in Colorado, that's the NICE way of saying 6 inches of snow) has me delayed.
To be continued.