Hi all, Well my first boondocking trip is over. I had a 15 amp circuit on three nights, and survived on battery power the other 3 nights. On the 2nd night without power I used very little power--only the 12 volt heating blanket. I also turned off the fridge and kept my food cool by using 2 freeze packs that I normally carry. That and a few parasitic loads dropped battery voltage from 12.6 down to 12.4 by morning. I chose to run my laptop on it's own batteries. In the morning I cooked my breakfast (bacon strips) in the microwave, and made toast in my electric toaster (800 watt unit). I did forget to turn on the electric water heater. I did run the fridge on 110 volt as I drove--and refroze the freezer packs. In the afternoon the temperature started to rise--so I went back and cut in the roof air conditioner--running it while I drove. The 3rd night it was much warmer--so I used my fantastic fan for a couple of hours to cool down the RV. As I was in USA I did not access the net via my usb modem--but rather played back an audio book I had downloaded previously (using the laptop batteries). Battery voltage started at 12.6 and by morning was 12.5 volts. It seems my Dometic fridge requires more freeze packs than my ancient Norcold (in my previous RV) in spite of having significantly less storage. I have them--but just didn't bring them along.
Finally got around to remembering to post what we did to enhance our solar so far. We've been traveling out West and Pacific Northwest for our work and now we're settled in AZ for the winter and hubby will be driving our vehicle to other states for work and leaving me where it's warm. We used to have 4 small batteries, and now we have three heavy duty batteries. They work really well. When we dry camp and have our two laptops and the tv on, the generator never goes on in the middle of the night like it did with the smaller batteries. We still have to take down the old satellite dish we used to use for our computer when we first moved into our motor home full-time. We will put an additional solar panel in its place. With working full-time, everything takes us a lot longer to get done. But we're heading in that direction. QUOTE(rangiebob @ Aug 7 2009, 05:19 PM) [snapback]18168[/snapback] Not quite sure yet. I gave hubby all of your posts and he has them all in mind but we have to see what can be done with our Renegade. Hopefully, we'll be able to do it all! :blink: One thing I know is that they will be building holders for 2 more batteries. We're doing whatever we can do to make our home more self-sufficient.
Hi rangiebob, I'm glad the generator is "getting to sleep". How many amp-hours of storage do you have? It sounds as if there are a solar panels already? If so, how many watts? QUOTE(rangiebob @ Nov 27 2009, 09:56 PM) [snapback]20147[/snapback] Finally got around to remembering to post what we did to enhance our solar so far. We've been traveling out West and Pacific Northwest for our work and now we're settled in AZ for the winter and hubby will be driving our vehicle to other states for work and leaving me where it's warm. We used to have 4 small batteries, and now we have three heavy duty batteries. They work really well. When we dry camp and have our two laptops and the tv on, the generator never goes on in the middle of the night like it did with the smaller batteries. We still have to take down the old satellite dish we used to use for our computer when we first moved into our motor home full-time. We will put an additional solar panel in its place. With working full-time, everything takes us a lot longer to get done. But we're heading in that direction.
Hi again Don! Each of our three heavy duty AGM-8 batteries have 250 amp hours. Yes, we currently have three solar panels are going to install one more. Here is the wattage that I found in an old email: "The 390 watt kit with 3 x KC130's, Solar Boost 2000E charge controller." Rachel QUOTE(pianotuna @ Nov 28 2009, 12:50 AM) [snapback]20148[/snapback] Hi rangiebob, I'm glad the generator is "getting to sleep". How many amp-hours of storage do you have? It sounds as if there are a solar panels already? If so, how many watts?
Hi Rachel, 390 watts may produce 31 amps--which is more than the charge controller can deal with. So if you add even more wattage it would be prudent to upgrade the Solar Boost 2000E (25 amps) to something with more capacity. QUOTE(rangiebob @ Nov 28 2009, 10:51 PM) [snapback]20153[/snapback] Hi again Don! Each of our three heavy duty AGM-8 batteries have 250 amp hours. Yes, we currently have three solar panels are going to install one more. Here is the wattage that I found in an old email: "The 390 watt kit with 3 x KC130's, Solar Boost 2000E charge controller." Rachel
Don, In that case, we may just leave it as it is and try it this way for a while. Thanks for the help. QUOTE(pianotuna @ Nov 29 2009, 01:19 AM) [snapback]20155[/snapback] Hi Rachel, 390 watts may produce 31 amps--which is more than the charge controller can deal with. So if you add even more wattage it would be prudent to upgrade the Solar Boost 2000E (25 amps) to something with more capacity.
