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Eco Worthy 120 watt solar

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David and Danette View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote David and Danette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Eco Worthy 120 watt solar
    Posted: 22 Oct 2021 at 10:54am
 We have about four weeks of reservations at Clearwater Lake and Alexander Springs campgrounds in Florida this Winter. Our new solar panel will be helpful because both campgrounds do not have electrical hook ups we will still have our generator when needed. Will be our first time camping without electrical hook up but I think we can adjust. It will be cooler weather so AC will not be needed we can run generator if our battery gets to low or if we need the microwave. Hope we have a lot of sunny days!
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StephenH View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote StephenH Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 Oct 2021 at 6:46pm
Hopefully it will work out for you. 
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offgrid View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote offgrid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Oct 2021 at 8:10am
How much battery capacity do you have? 200 amp hours or so (dual batteries) will work much better while off grid by providing more energy storage for cloudy days as well as reducing frequency of generator operation.
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David and Danette View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote David and Danette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24 Oct 2021 at 2:19pm
 We only have one battery that we bought at Walmart do not remember it's amperage hours. We will just need to be careful on the amount of electricity we use. I hope the camp site we have reserved doesn't have a lot of trees and that we have many sunny days. We have been warned about the bears in that frequent the area and alligators in the surrounding lakes we will be traveling with two dogs and a cat. Never traveled with a cat before it will be a learning process with our pets and no electrical or water hook ups. No dogs are allowed around the lake I think because of the danger of alligators. I am thinking positive that we will have a great time just need to be careful.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote offgrid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Oct 2021 at 10:05am
Unless your very frugal with your electric usage or your tow vehicle can't tolerate the additional tongue weight (about 60-80 lbs more) you will most likely ultimately want dual batteries if you do a lot of off grid camping. It's well worth it, many of us here will only camp at places without electricity, myself included.

If you do get dual batteries, your best choice ( short of converting to Lithium) is two 6V golf cart batteries connected in series. That will have a rating of around 205-220 amp hours at 12V. Get case size GC2 batteries and a couple plastic battery cases that fit that size. You would would also need a battery jumper to connect them in series, one only.

In the meantime keep track of your battery charge level and enjoy your trip!
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David and Danette View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote David and Danette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Dec 2021 at 6:13am
  We have been camping in Florida for almost two weeks without water or electric at our campsite. The solar panel has been a great help in keeping our battery charged we run our generator for about one hour a day. Our battery's strength averages a little over 12 volts a few times dropping a little below 12 volts at one time in reached 13.2 volts. Our biggest drain on the battery has been the refrigerator the way we are parked the sun hits the side of camper our refrigerator is on. If we had to use the furnace we would have to use generator more but thankfully we have had very warm weather averaging low sixties for lows and low eighties for highs. Thankful for the solar panel and I have seen other campers relying on their solar panels for electricity. It's been a enjoyable time camping at the campground we are staying at it's only at about 5% capacity with very few campers. Don't know why that is maybe because of the virus the weather sure has been beautiful.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote offgrid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Dec 2021 at 4:58am
Why would the fridge effect battery usage? You're running the fridge in propane right? When on propane fridge electric consumption is negligible.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote Tars Tarkas Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Dec 2021 at 8:53am
I agree about the fridge not using much 12v power at all -- as long as you're running it on propane.  If you're trying to run it on the battery, it will suck the juice out of it fast.

With solar, a generator, and prudent use of power, a single deep charge battery should be fine.  In my experience, anyway.  If you want to get into serious boondocking all the time, yeah, consider two golf car batteries.

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David and Danette View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Quote David and Danette Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Dec 2021 at 2:35pm
 We run it on propane but when the sun is on the side of the trailer hitting the refrigerator fan continues to run that's the only thing draining the battery there are no lights on in camper and they are led anyways they don't use much electricity. In the mornings when the sun is not hitting the refrigerator the solar meter shows battery getting stronger in voltage but when sun starts warming up outside where refrigerator is at you can hear the refrigerator fan running continuously while sun is hitting refrigerator side and meter showing voltage for battery begins to drop. Our refrigerator is not 12 volts it's either 110 volts or propane. Not sure how many amps refrigerator draws while operating by propane I am guessing its more than solar panel is producing at times. We have not had continuous sunshine there has been some clouds too the solar panel is 140 watts not sure what it has been averaging in the amount of watts it has been producing peak has been a little over 6 amps and sometimes as low as .03 amps.
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Post Options Post Options   Quote offgrid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Dec 2021 at 4:26pm
A 140 watt solar module willgenerate about 9-10 amps in full sunlight if it's oriented perpendicular to the sun's rays. If it's a horizontal roof mount that's never the case in the winter when the sun is low in the sky, so 6A is probably about right. You might on average get about 2 hours a day of equivalent full sun in the winter with that orientation so maybe 20 amphours of charging daily.

That's not a lot but should be enough to run your lights and probably a bit more. Not sure what fridge fan they're putting in the new larger fridges but it should be small and take very little to run. If you have a way to measure it's current draw that would be interesting info.
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