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HandsCamping View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Solar power operations?
    Posted: 16 Feb 2019 at 5:10pm
What all can we run off of the stock solar hookup if we purchase a zamp 90 watt solar panel?
Stanley & Erica Hand
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Feb 2019 at 5:55pm
Nothing. Solar doesn't run "anything".. It charges the battery(ies). So you can "run" all your 12v stuff, and recharge the battery(ies) that are powering them.

This means you can run everything that isn't 120v.. Which on most pods is the microwave and the air conditioner. Your television may or may not be 120v.. and of course your outlets won't work without 120v supply.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 6:57am
HandsCamping, if your question is what will a 90 watt solar module provide enough battery recharging to run on an ongoing basis I can try to answer that. 

Battery charge is generally measured in amp hours (AH) so you need to know about how many AH your solar module will produce on a daily basis and compare that to about how many AH you will use in your trailer. 

A 90 watt module will produce about 5 amps of charging current under full sun conditions. On a typical day in the spring/summer/fall in the southeast you will get about 5 hours a day of equivalent full sun conditions on a tilted south facing solar module. So, that 90 watt module will typically produce about 25 AH if you keep it in the sun all day, no shading.  If you have a really clear day you might get 35 AH and on a really cloudy day you might only get 5 AH out of it. 

What will 25 AH a day run? I find with reasonably careful use 25AH is enough to run everything I want to in my rPod as long as I'm not doing any heating or cooling. That includes lights, some 12V TV watching, and water heater and water pump use. YMMV.

If I need to heat or cool then the usage goes up a lot. The fantastic fan on medium and furnace each use about 2 amps when running so if you run either one of them 12 hours a day then you will double your AH requirement, and you'd need about 180 watts of solar to replace that on that typical day.

The other thing to consider is to go to a dual battery setup if you're doing much camping without hookups. That will start you out with about 200 AH stored in the battery. You should avoid going below about 50% state of charge on your battery so think about that as 100 AH available. That  would give me about 4 rainy days or days camped under trees without any solar charging, as long as I'm not heating or cooling, or about 2 sunless days if I need to heat/cool. 

So, starting with a fully charged large battery will effectively allow you to extend a boondocking trip with a smaller solar system. Even so, here in the east we can never really count on clear weather for very long so for me, having an alternative charging source (generator or tow vehicle) is a must. 

I'll add one other unsolicited comment. IMHO, the Zamp kits are way overpriced for what you get. Unless you have your heart set on one, take a look at the options out there before you buy. 

Hope that helps. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 2:49pm
offgrid, thank you for your help. I have a few follow up questions now. We are traveling to the west this year into rockies. We will be spending almost 14 days without power. My real concern has become our two small kids dealing with rainy days, and our refrigerator. We have a 176 and I have not found that the gas setting on the refrigerator to work very well at keeping it cool. I have had best results on the battery setting and straight shore power. I would also like some way to have plugs hot so we could recharge cell phone if we had to or run small fans. Are these things that can be done or do I need to look a different direction. If I could have a lasting refrigerator, air moving, and possible use of the TV (in emergencies) I think we would be good. I need to add a little weight to the front of my trailer for towing reasons so I am looking at adding an extra battery (run in parallel) and extra propane tank to the front. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 3:33pm
Our fridges usually work better on propane than on 12V electric. They are absorption type fridges so need heat to operate and the propane flame is hotter than the 12V electric element.  And, you don't want to use the fridge on 12V while boondocking, that uses about 11A continuous or 264 AH per day so it will kill your batteries in no time.  You can use it while charging from the tow vehicle on the road, that's about it.  So you probably want to do some troubleshooting on the fridge if its not running right on propane.  Maybe start another thread on that with your specific symptoms and questions. 

To have a hot 120Vac outlet you can wire  a small inverter, they're inexpensive. But also consider putting in a couple of 12V cigarette lighter receptacles and using your cell phone car charger.

There are also small 12V fans available.  I bought a couple clamp on oscillating 8 inch 12V fans on Amazon and I clamp them in various place provide cooling where I want it. They're about $15 each.  Running the cell phones and fans from 12V is more efficient that running through an inverter. 

The standard rPod TV is 120V but you can swap that for a dual 12V/120V  one the same size pretty cheaply. That saves energy as well and is more convenient than dealing with an inverter. 

I would definitely add a second battery for yoru planned trip, but if you have one battery now it will be 12V and you would have to add a second 12V battery in parallel. If you want to change out the battery you have consider getting 2 6V golf cart batteries. They have better cycling capability and more capacity. 

Sounds like you're going to be boondocking long enough that the starting charge on your batteries won't carry you through very long so you'll need to cover your power needs with solar and/or with tow vehicle or generator charging. If you don't have a genny and don't want to run your tow vehicle for long periods I'd suggest you maybe go for around 120 watts of solar rather than 90. Kind of an in between point since you'll have some cooling load but probably not as much as you would running the fantastic fan. There are tons of options for inexpensive portable solar kits available now. 


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 4:09pm
There are a couple of things you can do to help your refrigerator cool better.
1. have it serviced (or do it yourself if you are confident of your abilities and have the tools). The flue can become dirty so it should be cleaned to get any soot out that could interfere with heat transfer. This also includes cleaning the LP orifice and burner. Never stick anything through the orifice. Rubbing alcohol or denatured alcohol work well for this.
2. You could also disconnect the LP line both from the regulator and in the refrigerator compartment and blow the line out. You may be surprised at the oily fluid you will find coming out of the line when you do so (use a compressor and blow from the refer compartment to blow the fluid out at the tank end. Have something underneath to catch the fluid).
3. Make sure the pressure in your LP system is tested to be within specs. If it isn't, it may indicate a problem with your regulator.

I've had to do these more than once. I did this before last Spring's trip and the refrigerator which had performed poorly the previous summer worked much better.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 4:35pm
+1 to the suggestions of offgrid and StephenH.  

Regarding charging your phones, you may want to consider putting in a 12v. plug and USB plug combination.  The one in the following link also has a meter to show your battery voltage, which is handy to know.  https://www.amazon.com/Cllena-Charger-Voltmeter-Motorcycle-Vehicles/dp/B01JOUFLO6/ref=sr_1_6?crid=2I342FD5ZB0WB&keywords=12v+plugs+with+volt+meter+rocker+switch&qid=1550442188&s=gateway&sprefix=12v+meter+and+plug+%2Caps%2C222&sr=8-6

Take a look at the Costco 6v golf cart batteries before adding a 2nd 12v battery.  You may end up with more useable amp hours.  

We use the USB ports in the above-mentioned plug to charge our phones and iPad.  We have a very inexpensive inverter made for a car cigarette lighter that we use to charge the mac.  It is a little slow, but works just fine.  

By coincidence, I was at a store today here in Envigado, Colombia, after watching the Tour Colombia bike race, and ran across a fan that plugs into a USB port for power.  Take a look on Amazon for 12v fans for RV's that have cigarette lighter plugs and also look for fans with USB plugs.  They are not costly and you can also plug them into the plug system noted above, either with the USB or the cigarette lighter plug.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 Feb 2019 at 4:52pm
Good suggestion on the combo usb/cig lighter outlet. It reminded me that that's actually what I did too for our cell phones and tablet. The usb is probably the most efficient way to charge a cell phone. 

I checked the load from my 8 inch 12V fans and they take 0.5A so I don't think the usb fans will move much air (usb ports are good for up to 0.5A but at only 5V) so I'd suggest using the 12V cig lighter port for that. 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Feb 2019 at 7:00am
Another option is a small very quiet generator to just charge the batteries. And I second getting two 6v's vs two deep cycle 12v's....I have had both and the 6'v give more power for a longer time before needing re-charging. 

This dual 6v box will fit the holder on your trailer tongue:

https://allbatterysalesandservice.com/century-plastics-heavy-duty-battery-box-holds-2-6-volt-golf-cart-batteries-gce-g

The only thing else needed is a short jumper wire:

https://allbatterysalesandservice.com/deka-9-quot-golf-cart-battery-cable-eye-to-eye-9gsc


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 27 Feb 2019 at 5:03pm
We did 3 weeks of boondocking in Utah, Arizona, and Colorado last fall and found that our 80W GoPower folding panel did great.  You will need a 30' extension cable though to constantly catch sunbeams.  Otherwise stayed charged up well. We did not run the TV and try to use LuciLites (solar powered) to provide light at night.  We showered every other day and used the residual water in the heater for washing dishes.  That way you use the heater once a day.  We also do dishes outside with a propane stove for heating water. We ran the fridge on propane the whole time and used less than 4 lbs of propane.

We don't use the heater at all.  If heat is needed we use a Buddy Heater to warm the Pod then turn it off for awhile.  Even at temps in 30's we can go about 45 minutes between warmups.  We always have a window and the shower vent open.  We do not sleep with the buddy on.

Traveling with children will of course necessitate some changes to your power consumption but I don't think it would too much of a problem for you.  I would sure think about dual 12V or 6V batteries though.

Happy trails!
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