Any other solar power people out there? |
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secretbard
Senior Member Joined: 12 Apr 2011 Location: Budd Lake, NJ Online Status: Offline Posts: 195 |
Topic: Any other solar power people out there? Posted: 08 May 2012 at 8:19pm |
Thanks guys. This is a very informative thread.
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2010 Rpod 172 :)
2004 Chevy Trailblazer |
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bhamster
Senior Member Joined: 19 May 2011 Location: Washington Online Status: Offline Posts: 165 |
Posted: 10 May 2012 at 6:26pm |
We've been using a 30-watt "briefcase" panel from GoalZero:
along with the battery minder solar charger: I use a single group 24 lifeline AGM battery that has a very low self-discharge rate and it allows us to camp without electrical hookups indefinitely. We did a 2 week trip to Yellowstone last year and it worked perfectly. I have a 20ft extension cord so that I can put the panel in the sunniest part of the campsite and the charger actually fits inside the battery case. The battery was brought back to a full charge every day and had enough surplus energy to charge two cell phones and some random NiMH batteries. When the trailer is parked I use a less-obvious (and less expensive) 10 watt panel that I put on top of the propane tank. It keeps the trailer topped off when not in use. I should mention that our usage pattern is very minimal. At night we use lights (LED only), water pump, and heater blower (if it's cold). During the day we'll run the fan, charge devices, or run accessories since we have the surplus energy from the panel. So it doesn't work for everyone, but it's great for us. Now only if we could harvest drinking water from the air and vaporize our waste... then we could really go off the grid.
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techntrek
Admin Group - pHp Joined: 29 Jul 2009 Location: MD Online Status: Offline Posts: 9059 |
Posted: 10 May 2012 at 8:01pm |
Actually there are water-from-air devices, mostly small water coolers, although this article talks about larger ones. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmospheric_water_generator
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Doug ~ '10 171 (2009-2015) ~ 2008 Salem ~ Pod instruction manual
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