Quote:
Originally Posted by Lamokadave
Never intend to replace what we could do plugged in with what we do when dry camping. We grew up camping in trailers and never had a genny. We did adapt to solar as our "" improved trailers required basic power to run. We learned to be very content that way and see no reason to change just because we can fire up a genny. My goal is to be able to dry camp as long as the tanks last without depleting the batteries. The lithium make a huge stride toward that but 400w of solar isn't quite there with the residential fridge. I really would have preferred a 10 cu ft propane/electric and then there would be no issue at all.
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Solar has its application for certain.
Arizona is great for solar, but it is no longer summer when energy is easier to collect. If you are making 80 Amp-hours daily, that’s only about 1 kilowatt-hour of energy daily which won’t power most larger residential refrigerators.
I have seen vans (as example) with 400 to 600 Watts (nominal) of solar panel capacity that can power their small compressor refrigerator all day and still have enough surplus for lights, pump, fan, etc. In summer in your area a 600 Watt system could collect up to 3 kWh daily which is quite a bit (provided not trying to power an air conditioner which is a completely different problem/challenge).
Unfortunately, a solar system that can make 3 kWh of energy daily may need more than 300 Amp-hours of battery capacity in order to operate efficiently.
Anyway, excluding air conditioning, solar isn’t that expensive any more and can reduce or eliminate generator or idling requirements (assuming you park in sun) to a large degree, provided roof has enough free area for panels. I personally can’t imagine using portable panels.
P.S. — My comments above and units of measure are for a 12-Volt system, otherwise some don’t make sense.
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