I have a 200 watt solar system and I show you what I’m able to do with it, I have 2 standard RV batteries as you'd get at any RV dealer or even Walmart. 27DC Lead acid battery
WOW! I have been watching endless solar how to videos. It all left me more confused than more educated. THIS VIDEO was exactly what I needed! Was going to take the plunge and order a portable solar generator this week and I can not THANK YOU enough. You saved me a TON of hassle and confusion!! I just purchased a small mini fridge similar to yours for an emergency and had NO odea what I would need to run it!!!! THANK YOU
Thanks for your kind words. I done the same as you. Watched countless videos with hertz volts amps watts and didn’t have a clue when each video ended. I’ll be doing another video soon about whether to use RV batteries or Lifepo4 lithium batteries. I’ll keep it simple too.
Another thing that would help with the fridge is to buy several of those freezer gel packs and place them in the fridge where you have empty space and the fridge will stay cold longer and not cycle as much. Even if not frozen, it will help.
I freeze water bottles, put in fridge night time, or b4 u leave, (will keep fridge cold, slowly melting, keeping the Compressor from coming on as often) by morning & throughout day as they melt, & once taken out, melting will b pretty quick :) Would have water bottles in anyways, so more than one use, for something that most have when camping. Batteries, have charging cycles, once u have 6 months or more on battery came with trailer, Cycles related to charging Not how old battery is (Some people say that’s to long or to many cycles between old & new batteries, don’t put in same bank) Which means, when u add a new battery to the older battery, which has used many charging cycles already Then, when u add the new battery, (won’t matter parallel or Series) The new battery will have to “Overcharge itself”, to bring the older battery, up to the same Level as the new battery Because the new battery is undercharging, it will increase the time required to bring both batteries to full charge, If old battery & new battery r over charging, will produce a lot of heat If ur not using a sealed battery There will b excessive amount of out gassing from battery’s (Which is why u NEVER store unsealed batteries inside, or if u do, there must b sufficient “Venting”, for the gases to escape to outside) These gases r poisonous & explosive If battery is a Sealed “Gel”, (AGM) the plates will have begun corrosion buildup, which will take longer to charge as a side effect, & b beginning of Voltage degradation (can’t quite hit those full numbers like u used to, or takes forever to get that last bit charged or just can’t anymore), If continue to use together, will accelerate the lifetime of the original battery, leading to failure b4 it’s rated time Meanwhile, because of the constant over charging, high temperatures, the plates will have begun excess deterioration, causing the new battery a premature death as well :( If wanting to increase Amp hours, or watt hours by adding additional batteries to ur existing battery bank Is usually a no no Unless relatively same amount of cycles r on each battery Note : Age of batteries is Not the same as number of charging Can buy two batteries, use one constantly, finally want to add them If charging cycles have to much of a difference between each other Then it’s, “Sorry Charlie”, Then u cant combine the batteries If close then u can :) But, but There is always a “but” :) Most quality battery chargers or Converters, with built in charger have wiring to have two Battery Banks Then u can put new battery on 2nd Bank, & Charge Controller will handle the rest At the same time, if quality “Charge Controller”, is used, it will have a Maintenance mode, that can have a Manuel setting or left in Automatic. This will put a “Pulsed current”, across the plates, that will gradually over time, break down any unwanted buildup on the batteries plates, Prolonging the life of both of ur batteries :) Giving u more value for ur dollar, & more entertainment with the batteries Hope that helps :)
@@ivanwigmore I put little water bottles part way full in the little freezer section of my 3.1 cubic ft dorm fridge so if my solar power station runs dead while I`m away or sleeping it will stay cool for several hours if needed. I got it and two cheap 500 watt solar power stations as part of my hurricane preparedness kit. These power stations aren`t quite big enough to handle the compressor surge of my 5 cubic ft freezer though which is sad. But my Bluetti EB70 power stations can and both together can keep it frozen for 48 hours on a charge. I just bought a 12v 300 ah Ampere Time battery to build a solar system for some emergency air conditioning and some heat in Winter. With the proper charge controller/solar panel setup it can power the 450 watt AC or 600 watt heater as long as the sun is shining and at least 6 hours on a charge.
After reading many reviews and watching a lot of videos, I chose this option for my first backup power station. th-cam.com/users/postUgkxHypYDKHAN93Lp2RQpfvU_ksc70wJ00pt I was between this and a larger option that could power a wider range of items, but the price/size/capacity blend seemed right for this unit. Hasn't gotten a ton of use yet, but the build quality is solid and it charges fine via the Rockpals solar panel I purchased to pair with it. One thing to note is that the screen is optimized for a top down viewing angle, which makes sense, but this means it washes out at other angles - especially low angles. Not a huge deal, but perhaps a better option for the display could be used to provide wider viewing angles.
Thank You Dave, Finally a video that explains this in a straight forward and simple way for some of us that cant figure this solar/battery power thing.
for those starting out with their first system remember tv's and such run with transformers, when button is turned off the trans former is still running, all such items should run with power bars for complete power off. nice simple to the point vid, keep up the nice work..thx
Thanks for great comment. I ruined my tv by not unplugging it. I had a small generator that would surge under low draw. The non consistent power input to tv killed it. Simply unplugging would’ve saved it
@@davesrvchannel4717 I use one of those APC backup surge protectors with a small battery backup to plug my electronics into when in the camper ,that way I am getting surge and battery protected current when the generator or inverter get low or when i am in transition from one power source to another.
I agree with you. I had an RV with 200-watts of solar and it kept my lead acid batteries full enough that I could generally run just about everything including my water pump, TV, computer, lights, etc. The only time I had to run my generator was when it was overcast or raining for more than a day.
Hi there! I’m looking at a travel trailer that comes with 2, 100 watt solar panels already installed but I’m worried it won’t run much - Can you tell me how many battery’s you used to be able to run everything?
@@rosieplath1653 I used two 6-volt golf cart batteries wired in series to get 12-volts. Each battery was 100-amps so that gave me a total of 1,200 watts (12-volts times 100-amps = 1,200-watts). Dividing that in half (to preserve battery life), I had 600-watts to play with. This was enough to last me for one day which turned out to be plenty unless I had a couple of cloudy days. If I could do over I would use two 12-volt LiFeP04 batteries (wired in parallel) rather than lead acid batteries. Then I would have the entire 1200 watts to play with instead of 600.
Great video, thank you. I noticed your batteries were designated as MS marine, that’s marine starting battery, you could benefit from using marine DC batteries for Deep Cycle discharging, I hope that helps. Peace.
this is the kind of info I've been looking for! thank you for doing the research for all of us. was wondering about my refrigerator as well without using propane
I own a house I have a refrigerator I have a kitchen stove I have microwave I have a freezer I have a TV five computers several lights to my house and I have solar I have four 405 what solar panels I have two 150 watts solar panels I have four 100 Watts solar panels I have one 80 w solar panel I have two 60 watts solar panels I have seven 15 what solar panels I have six 18 Watts solar panels. And yes my house is completely electric I don't have any gas of any type coming into my house not to heat my house or nothing else I live in the city or a large town or medium sized town that they call the city I live in the North it was cloudy all day today and rainy my solar charges are only charging batteries at 5 amps out of all the amps they could charge them with they're charging them with his little amount as they could and I put a battery to it that was very low and it jumped up and amperage very quickly and yes it was raining and yes it was very cloudy no sun my power is still on and it is 3:00 in the morning. And yes I also have saw as I run too and yes I use them and they hook up to my solar and electric company does not have any electricity coming into my house. To find solar panels that cost less than solar panels should you check out Walmart's app and look up solar panels you'll find solar panels cheap and brand new and work really good how much more do you want to know that is 200 watt system is no good not enough power he just told you that and I tell you my 2600 and something watts is a little too small for my house but after a few hours it will run everything in my house when I need it. But my solar panels and my solar chargers always ask for more batteries tell me I do not have enough I have 12 volt batteries I have 12 volt converters that run 120 volts and I got a converter or two that runs 240 250 or 50 amps to run my kitchen stove which is something like 2,900 watts too 3,600 watts and that's why it takes a few hours of daylight to run my kitchen stove which batteries do well for in the morning from the day before yes I would like more solar panels I say I don't got enough solar panels because I probably really don't but it does give me enough power in today's time even in a snowy day to run my house and a couple Paul saws and drills my weed eater my rototiller my mower so so yeah it's probably enough power to run everything I need but I really don't think it is cuz it's saying you need sunlight to charge your batteries and most times my battery is a charged when there's no sun out but when we do get sun in the summer I get sent from what 4:35 in the morning to 8:30 at night. In the winter I get some light from 7:00 to 4:30 at night or should I say daylight cuz most of the times that sounds not out especially when it's snowing and cloudy all the time or just cloudy with no sun in the sight but you still got daylight. So is that what you really wanted to know? Oh and I forgot to tell you I also have four 25 watt solar panels but two of them are not hooked up yet and my 15 watt solar panels I'm 18 watt panels are disconnected right now cuz I'm doing some work with my battery stands so I can put more batteries because I don't like my battery is getting less than 10% down in power or in this case I like that I have 40-year-old batteries that still work like today if you go out and buy a new one which I will be doing soon and still using my 40-year-old Good batteries as well as my 10-year-old my 35-year-old and my 25 year old batteries that I use for my solar panels and pretty soon I have one year old or should I say less than a month old batteries and yes I buy lead acid batteries because I can't afford $2,000 for a battery when $2,000 for batteries would actually get me 20 batteries or 22 batteries of lead acid batteries at 1,000 amp which is 135 amp hours each and I only like using 10 amp hours out of each so that they'll never die or in this case I could use probably 60 amp hours and they'll probably never die is that more of a better question or an answer to a question that you want to know. And yes I did find more solar panels to buy and yes I'm using my 25-26 year old solar panels and it still give me the same amount of water that they did the same day I bought them so they work like if they're brand new but they're just old but if you take care of your solar panels keep them clean take care of the wires keep up keep on your upkeep on them they should never die they should never get old they should always work like if they're a brand new at least that's what works for me with my solar panels my wiring for it and my batteries and solar chargers and converters keep everything always good clean nice neat fix wires going to go bad or when they get old the last you forever. And I've been using solar panels since I bought this house at first I did have electric company hooked up to it and I didn't have very many solar panels but I didn't have to pay for TV or lights to run and now I don't need electric company at all but that's probably a bad thing because if I get more solar panels I could tell them electricity even though they won't pay very much for it it would actually be a very good living just collecting all that money that they give me. Of course generac said that they'll come over and put solar panels on my roof hook it up with the electric company and I'll make some money about $2,094 bucks a month but generac hasn't come over yet and they told me this close to 4 months ago but my neighbor my new neighbor actually they just moved in told me that he works for generac for not the same thing I want generic to do for me but for something else a generac is really busy all the way up through September of 2022 so backed up it'll be that long before they might be able to get to my house but that's not good I want them sooner than later.
👍 very Informative and straightforward, I'm a month into my Tramper ctc build and getting into the solar part now. Thank you for keeping it simple and the easy to understand explanation.
Fill the freezer section of the mini fridge with water bottles. The thermal mass will make it not have to work as hard. Then you don't have to play with the thermostat. The fuller a fridge is, the less hard it works after everything is already cold.
another point i would add, especially if there are kids around, is to not open the fridge/freezer door to much or for too long. i think we all have the habit of just staring into the fridge trying to figure out what you want to eat when we are home, but that is something I discourage with our smaller propane fridge in the RV.
200 watts of solar, one mpp 12 volt all in one Inverter, solar charge controller and ac charger, one Battleborn battery. For about 1500$ you can boondock all weekend, run a dorm fridge on medium, a fantastic fan, and a CPAP. I do this in my topper on a pickup.
Accurate, good video! Yep, run your fridge-tater... Watch movies on an iPad and bring a couple big USB battery banks to recharge it. You can run a small USB fan off a battery bank too. To go totally off grid for like days, like with AC, you'll need waaay more than those 200 watts.
Thank you for the information. Your explanation is, so far, the easiest to understand I've found. Again, so far, every other video I've watched has been so full of jargon, I had no idea what the person was talking about. Maybe I'm touchy, but I was getting some kind of ticked off as searched for a video to tell me, basically, what I need to run a fridge/freezer and maybe a television. I could go on and on. THANK YOU for your presentation!!!
We lived full-time in a 35 foot motorhome, for five years, with all the solar backup 300 watts and 4 - 6v battery bank and even tried the solar water heater with the black tubing and a 35 gal water tank...Most of the time We were hooked into shore power...Its good to know you have a backup system and I forgot the on-board gas generator...It's a lifestyle some people struggle with...You have to give up the stuff and live a minimalist lifestyle...
Excellent use of your generator. I have a 11kw generac and only run it when I've been without sun for a couple of days. That way it runs the house and brings the batteries back to approximately an 80% charge just after running the engine generator for a couple of hours. By using the generator in this fashion it puts a full load on the generator and that is actually more efficient than if my generator only has a 50% load on it.
I just finished restifying a 1973 Holiday Camper trailer. It is 7x15, and all I need is power to run a fridge the same size as in this video. I figured a 200 watt system would be sufficient. I was looking at a Renogy or Eco-Worthy kit from Amazon Canada, preferably with a 50 Ah battery. I also have a generator handy in case of emergencies.
Maybe a timer on the fridge from 11pm to 6am would save you a little more battery power. While the fridge is closed on the over night it will stay nice and cold when the door isn't being opened.
An awesome upgrade is a portable refrigerator. They come in various sizes. Many can run at 60w but have an eco 40w mode. They are built like a chest freezer, so hold cold air better than an upright fridge. Many also have a battery saver mode to protect the batteries from low voltage. Either way, keep the fridge full uses less power. If possible freeze a couple bottled waters and place those in the fridge at night.
Solar panels are cheap now, you can add a couple of ground panels to your setup. Golf cart 6v batteries will work better, but you need 2 or 4 , you can't use 3. Also picking up a 12v fridge will help with efficiency.
200w will produce 16 amps per hour It will take 6 hours to charge that 100 amp marine battery from dead to full, so in a real world setting where you aren't killing it completely, you're looking at about 3-4 hours to charge up. Adding more batteries won't really help. And to explain why, you can think of your electrical system like it's water. The batteries in your system are just buckets, you fill them up with water so that you can use it later. But the water has to come from somewhere. The solar panels are your garden hose. You put the hose in the bucket, which fills it with water. Once the bucket is full, you can take the hose out and just use the hose directly to water whatever you need. And if you need a little extra, you can scoop some water from the bucket now and then. Once the sun goes down, you turn the hose off, and now all your water has to come from the bucket. If you're using a lot of water, it won't last long, and then the next day you won't have much water to use either because you need to spend time filling up the bucket first. So you decide to add more buckets, that way you have more water to use when the hose is off. Let's say you go from one bucket to five buckets. And to make it easy, we'll say you use one and a half buckets of water every night. So you start with five full buckets the first night, and by the next morning three and a half are still full, and the hose is refilling the ones you used. Problem solved right? Not necessarily. Let's say these buckets hold six gallons of water each. And your garden hose puts out six gallons of water a day. By the second night, your five buckets are only 4.5. The third night you're down to 4. Then 3.5, etc. By the tenth night, you have no water left. You haven't solved the problem, you've just stretched it out over a longer time. Now I understand that in this example, ten days of reserves is probably adequate for any camping trip. I'm not saying that this idea wouldn't work in theory, I'm just saying it's going about it in the wrong way. It's masking the problem, not solving it. It's inefficient and costly. Ideally you want to produce and store 200% of what you'll use in a day. So if your appliances use "six gallons" of electricity a day, you'll want to store 12. But having the storage capacity is pointless if you don't have enough supply to refill it. So if you can store twelve, then you need a system that can supply at least that same amount, preferably more. 200w panels produce about 16 amps after accounting for loss. So that means in a typical day with 5-6 hours of good strong sunlight, you can get about 100 amps a day. Those marine batteries are usually 100 amp batteries, so a 200w array with two of those batteries gives you 200% storage capacity, 50 amp hours (half of maximum output) of supply during daylight hours, and an additional 50 amp hours (the other half of maximum output) for night time. For a total of 100 amps of usable power every 24 hours. If you add more batteries, or replace them with higher capacity batteries above 200 amp hours, you'll also need to increase the amount of solar power being generated. Since the amount of power you can effectively use per day (regardless of the number of batteries) is equal to the output of the panels you have, you can then do some simple math on appliances to see if your system is adequate. You said you run a mini fridge, so let's work through that. Your standard mini fridge uses about 70 watts of power per hour. 70 watts of 120v ac is ~0.6 amps per hour. So it takes 14.5 amps per day to run a mini fridge for 24 hours. Since your panels will generate power for about 25% of that time, the other 75% will come from the batteries (see why the panel output is important?). So about 3.5 of the 14.5 amps will come from the panel, and the remaining 11 from the battery. ....except a fridge runs on ac, and our panels produce DC, so it must be converted. When you convert you can expect an average loss of 35% for a larger appliance like a fridge, and something like a single light bulb can be as much as 95%! So when we multiply everything by 1.35 we get a truer sense of how much is being used. The mini fridge actually consumes about 20 amp hours per day, 15 of which come from the battery. Phone chargers are another fun example, because they use DC. So you're converting DC, to ac, back to DC. Let's say the charger uses one amp just for an easy example. We have to work backwards from the draw to the supply, and a phone charger has about a 40% loss. So our 1 amp going into the phone requires 1.4 amps into the charger. Now the supply for the charger is also being inverted, and we'll use that 35% loss number from earlier. So for the charger to get 1.4 amps, the inverter must draw 1.89 amps. That's an 89% loss from start to end!
Very good explanation of how the system works. I used 200 watt system in this example because this is what is typical of a new camper. Many folks new to camping and new to solar like to know capabilities. Many are also retired/senior citizens and may struggle adding more solar panels on roof. Thanks again for thorough explanation
There's an individual named Steven Harris who wrote a book called Sunshine two dollars. He made a nice system using a small refrigerator like yours of course he ripped it all apart yada yada. Long story short he took the condenser coil and stuck it in water so it helped cooling a gas back down from the compressor which increases deficiency tremendously. You can also line the outside of the refrigerator with isocyanate board AKA blue board pink board insulation comes in different thicknesses with I believe the match thickness of two inches. This will allow you to run other things. Keep up the good work
Awesome. Keep us well informed as howkish salespeople are all over trying to make a kill with newbie home owners especially in Africa. Kindly shed more light on how to detect fake substandard panels.
Thank You this is clear talking not that technical shit,.! i,m also taking a 200w but have one accu off 140amps. no micrro ore curling iron hahaha love it thanks dude,.!
When i am dry camping i run my fridge on propane and it only uses the batts when lighting the igniter which isn’t much and the light inside the fridge when open, there will prolly be a small amount of draw for the circuit board in the fridge that controls it. Uses very little electricity while on propane never had to turn things down at night or worry about it. I have 2 6volt batts and a zamp portable 160watt solar kit that i set up out on the ground. Runs lights, fridge and furnace for the night no problems. Still run the geni if we want to use ac or microwave which we rarely ever use. Run my tv on a bluetti ac50s SoGen at night for a movie and use a bluetti EB55 SoGen for my Cpap
Thanks Dave, and the iceco frig I have only pulls around .8 Ah so for 12 overnight hours that’s around 10 Ah of my 100Ah marine agm battery used overnight, around 90% battery charge left by morning. During most days my 250w of solar can push around 18-20 amps max per hour to my battery, plenty for daytime full usage of various devices, including electric cooktops and other appliances. Good idea on night on/off frig timer!
thanks for your information and experience. you helped me feel even more confident that the 100w system i just ordered to start out with will likely meet my simple off grid needs. my fridge will run on propane, leaving my battery bank to be consumed by led bulbs and small electronics.
Cool fridge. Mine is 3.1 cubic ft. My mid sized 540 wh 500 watt solar power stations are just large enough to handle the compressor surge (but not my 5 cubic ft freezer) and run the fridge up to 24+ hours unless it`s very hot. If it was sunny each day I could run it indefinately if I leave the power station connected to a 100 watt solar panel. I put as many bottles of water as I can in the little freezer section which is inside the refrigerator section so if the battery dies I have several more hours of cooling. I got this stuff because of hurricanes. My Bluetti EB70 power stations can handle to surge of my freezer and can run it about 20-24 hours.
I worked for a carnival for 2 years, lived in a small camper, most of the time i only had a 10 inch tablet, my phone and a couple of 7x power banks for charging phones , which i kept on charger as I worked the food wagon during day. The owner was to cheap to get electric for the camper. But i got by just fine , it was fun traveling around city after city, beside sleeping it was fun exploring other cities so living was different than, say in a house , just needed sleep . This two battery and 200 w solar will operate a coffee maker just fine, the rest of my day I was working or seeing the city. So my sparse power with a tablet for my movies was perfect.
I just picked up a small travel trailer, a Jayflight SLX 195RBW (Baja). I added 400w solar panels and 200Ah of lithium batteries. Also added a 3000w inverter. The fridge is an 8cf 12v unit. I won’t run the air conditioner when boondocking, but I might run it fan only. I set the inverter up so I actually have to plug it in to the shore power inlet, seemed an easier installation. 115v to 30a block, short heavy duty extension cord from inverter to the converter block, then the standard 30a dogbone to the trailer. At home, I can connect to an outside outlet, it becomes a guest room if needed. Dry camping - judicious use of the microwave should be okay. My coffee maker is non-electric, stovetop drip, looks just like an electric.
"It's really the battery bank that limits the use of the system." Try a "Solar Generator" battery unit. A lot of them now do some sort of "energy hoisting," where they channel their power into a stronger shape, re resistive loads, which are a lot of the loads you'll use: coffee maker, refrigerator, (space heater?). You'd have to activate the energy "lifting" option, but it would make many more appliances able to run. It would of course take longer to charge back to level, but the option might work for what you want.
Hi ya. I have been collecting solar gear for a couple years now. I have 2-+100 watt mono panels, 9 of the 15 watt Harbor Freight panels ( 3 45 watt kits), with the el cheapo Thunderbolt 45 watt charge controllers. Also have a Thunderbolt 500 watt/40 amp charge controller. Then a 1200 watt, and a 500 watt inverter. Battery storage is around 650aH total: 2- 100aH 12 volt, and 2-232aH 6 volt golf cart batteries in series. I use one 12 volt battery and both 6 volt batteries on the 500 watt charge controller. and1200 watt inverter. The 3 small (3-15 watt) or 45 watt systems are all in parallel through the stock 45 watt controllers, and into the 500 watt inverter with the last 100aH battery. Yea6, two systems. 3 actually. as I use one of the 45 watt controllers as a 12 volt system only. For charging phones, a tablet and 2-way radios. I realize it sounds like a cobbled together mess. It is. But I've only spent about $150 total. I can run my fridge, a 40" TV and DVD player, a 20" fan a pair of 12 volt LED lamps, and 2 100 lite mini Christmas lite strings. I cut my power bill by more than half. That6a deal. Huh? I'm looking for a deal on some 200 or 250 watt panels. Open box, used whatever. I figure one of these days, we're gonna find ourselves in a grid down situation. EMP, Solar flares, something. I don't like sitting in dark.
I'm as Green as it gets to solar. I've watched a few videos on this diy solar, had a few doubts on how much a small system could power, you layer it down perfectly, I really understand now ,well explained Dave, thank you
@woooudo that would take a bunch of battery power. You’d spend a fortune in batteries to do that. This video is about a 200 watt system. You’d need much larger. You can get small propane cooktop for $25 at flea market or new for $60 or so.
I have a 400 watt set up with 6 rv batteries. I have the black and decker version of that same freezer fridge. On partly sunny days I can run that fridge , a TV, radio, or blue ray player, and a light or two if needed all day all night.and I'm never entertaining myself day and night lol too much swimming cooking and fishing to do.
This is the best video! Exactly what I was looking for. I just spent 160 on 2 rv deep cycle 100ah batteries at Walmart today. Ill be getting two 100w solar panels to put on my 22' rv trailer. One question I have is what do you do to see what your batteries are at? Does your charge controller tell you?
Yes, my charge controller tells me where my battery levels are at. If you can keep battery levels at or above 12.5, they will last you more years of service. Never go below 12.0. Good luck with your new solar setup!
Yes, most charge controllers will at least tell you your battery's static voltage. Mine is a cheap little Chinese model but it monitors the battery voltage nicely. The trick to RV solar use can boil down to using propane when you need any kind of heat. I run a water pump, an evaporative cooler(only in the daytime), a car radio/CD player, about 6 led lights and a USB fan and charge my phone directly from the charge controller. All off one large deep cycle battery. I do this 7 days a week when I camp host in the summer at sunny locations. I have to conserve in woods due to the shade of course.
WOW! I have been watching endless solar how to videos. It all left me more confused than more educated. THIS VIDEO was exactly what I needed! Was going to take the plunge and order a portable solar generator this week and I can not THANK YOU enough. You saved me a TON of hassle and confusion!! I just purchased a small mini fridge similar to yours for an emergency and had NO odea what I would need to run it!!!! THANK YOU
Thanks for your kind words. I done the same as you. Watched countless videos with hertz volts amps watts and didn’t have a clue when each video ended.
I’ll be doing another video soon about whether to use RV batteries or Lifepo4 lithium batteries. I’ll keep it simple too.
Another thing that would help with the fridge is to buy several of those freezer gel packs and place them in the fridge where you have empty space and the fridge will stay cold longer and not cycle as much. Even if not frozen, it will help.
These will especially help at night or during cloudy days.
I freeze water bottles, put in fridge night time, or b4 u leave, (will keep fridge cold, slowly melting, keeping the Compressor from coming on as often)
by morning & throughout day as they melt, & once taken out, melting will b pretty quick :)
Would have water bottles in anyways, so more than one use, for something that most have when camping.
Batteries, have charging cycles, once u have 6 months or more on battery came with trailer,
Cycles related to charging Not how old battery is
(Some people say that’s to long or to many cycles between old & new batteries, don’t put in same bank)
Which means, when u add a new battery to the older battery, which has used many charging cycles already
Then, when u add the new battery, (won’t matter parallel or Series)
The new battery will have to “Overcharge itself”, to bring the older battery, up to the same Level as the new battery
Because the new battery is undercharging, it will increase the time required to bring both batteries to full charge,
If old battery & new battery r over charging, will produce a lot of heat
If ur not using a sealed battery
There will b excessive amount of out gassing from battery’s
(Which is why u NEVER store unsealed batteries inside, or if u do, there must b sufficient “Venting”, for the gases to escape to outside)
These gases r poisonous & explosive
If battery is a Sealed “Gel”, (AGM)
the plates will have begun corrosion buildup, which will take longer to charge as a side effect, & b beginning of Voltage degradation (can’t quite hit those full numbers like u used to, or takes forever to get that last bit charged or just can’t anymore),
If continue to use together, will accelerate the lifetime of the original battery, leading to failure b4 it’s rated time
Meanwhile, because of the constant over charging, high temperatures, the plates will have begun excess deterioration, causing the new battery a premature death
as well :(
If wanting to increase Amp hours, or watt hours by adding additional batteries to ur existing battery bank
Is usually a no no
Unless relatively same amount of cycles r on each battery
Note : Age of batteries is Not the same as number of charging
Can buy two batteries, use one constantly, finally want to add them
If charging cycles have to much of a difference between each other
Then it’s, “Sorry Charlie”,
Then u cant combine the batteries
If close then u can :)
But, but
There is always a “but” :)
Most quality battery chargers or Converters, with built in charger have wiring to have two Battery Banks
Then u can put new battery on 2nd Bank, & Charge Controller will handle the rest
At the same time, if quality “Charge Controller”, is used, it will have a Maintenance mode, that can have a Manuel setting or left in Automatic.
This will put a “Pulsed current”, across the plates, that will gradually over time, break down any unwanted buildup on the batteries plates,
Prolonging the life of both of ur batteries :)
Giving u more value for ur dollar, & more entertainment with the batteries
Hope that helps :)
@@ivanwigmore Good response, thank you
Very good point!
@@ivanwigmore I put little water bottles part way full in the little freezer section of my 3.1 cubic ft dorm fridge so if my solar power station runs dead while I`m away or sleeping it will stay cool for several hours if needed. I got it and two cheap 500 watt solar power stations as part of my hurricane preparedness kit. These power stations aren`t quite big enough to handle the compressor surge of my 5 cubic ft freezer though which is sad. But my Bluetti EB70 power stations can and both together can keep it frozen for 48 hours on a charge. I just bought a 12v 300 ah Ampere Time battery to build a solar system for some emergency air conditioning and some heat in Winter. With the proper charge controller/solar panel setup it can power the 450 watt AC or 600 watt heater as long as the sun is shining and at least 6 hours on a charge.
After reading many reviews and watching a lot of videos, I chose this option for my first backup power station. th-cam.com/users/postUgkxHypYDKHAN93Lp2RQpfvU_ksc70wJ00pt I was between this and a larger option that could power a wider range of items, but the price/size/capacity blend seemed right for this unit. Hasn't gotten a ton of use yet, but the build quality is solid and it charges fine via the Rockpals solar panel I purchased to pair with it. One thing to note is that the screen is optimized for a top down viewing angle, which makes sense, but this means it washes out at other angles - especially low angles. Not a huge deal, but perhaps a better option for the display could be used to provide wider viewing angles.
I have watched so many videos and left still clueless. But as for your explanation of how much power I need 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿I salute 🫡
Thank You Dave, Finally a video that explains this in a straight forward and simple way for some of us that cant figure this solar/battery power thing.
Thanks. I am currently filming one to help you decide between Lifepo4 batteries or RV marine batteries.
Tell me about it. been looking for a vid that explains things like this
Thanks. I've looked at many channels on this subject. Your, by far, is the easiest to follow and gives the best info.
Thanks a lot Gary, I appreciate it
What a great video on solar and battery banks. It never occurred to me to add an extra battery for more comfort. I thought I needed extrasolar
Appreciate this "good ole boy" straight forward approach. Good info without the BS. Thank you for the effort sir. 👍
for those starting out with their first system remember tv's and such run with transformers, when button is turned off the trans former is still running, all such items should run with power bars for complete power off. nice simple to the point vid, keep up the nice work..thx
Thanks for great comment. I ruined my tv by not unplugging it. I had a small generator that would surge under low draw. The non consistent power input to tv killed it. Simply unplugging would’ve saved it
@@davesrvchannel4717 I use one of those APC backup surge protectors with a small battery backup to plug my electronics into when in the camper ,that way I am getting surge and battery protected current when the generator or inverter get low or when i am in transition from one power source to another.
I agree with you. I had an RV with 200-watts of solar and it kept my lead acid batteries full enough that I could generally run just about everything including my water pump, TV, computer, lights, etc. The only time I had to run my generator was when it was overcast or raining for more than a day.
Hi there! I’m looking at a travel trailer that comes with 2, 100 watt solar panels already installed but I’m worried it won’t run much -
Can you tell me how many battery’s you used to be able to run everything?
@@rosieplath1653 I used two 6-volt golf cart batteries wired in series to get 12-volts. Each battery was 100-amps so that gave me a total of 1,200 watts (12-volts times 100-amps = 1,200-watts). Dividing that in half (to preserve battery life), I had 600-watts to play with. This was enough to last me for one day which turned out to be plenty unless I had a couple of cloudy days. If I could do over I would use two 12-volt LiFeP04 batteries (wired in parallel) rather than lead acid batteries. Then I would have the entire 1200 watts to play with instead of 600.
I'm RVer yet, but really like your presentation and the information. Thanks
Great video, thank you. I noticed your batteries were designated as MS marine, that’s marine starting battery, you could benefit from using marine DC batteries for Deep Cycle discharging, I hope that helps. Peace.
this is the kind of info I've been looking for! thank you for doing the research for all of us. was wondering about my refrigerator as well without using propane
I own a house I have a refrigerator I have a kitchen stove I have microwave I have a freezer I have a TV five computers several lights to my house and I have solar I have four 405 what solar panels I have two 150 watts solar panels I have four 100 Watts solar panels I have one 80 w solar panel I have two 60 watts solar panels I have seven 15 what solar panels I have six 18 Watts solar panels. And yes my house is completely electric I don't have any gas of any type coming into my house not to heat my house or nothing else I live in the city or a large town or medium sized town that they call the city I live in the North it was cloudy all day today and rainy my solar charges are only charging batteries at 5 amps out of all the amps they could charge them with they're charging them with his little amount as they could and I put a battery to it that was very low and it jumped up and amperage very quickly and yes it was raining and yes it was very cloudy no sun my power is still on and it is 3:00 in the morning. And yes I also have saw as I run too and yes I use them and they hook up to my solar and electric company does not have any electricity coming into my house. To find solar panels that cost less than solar panels should you check out Walmart's app and look up solar panels you'll find solar panels cheap and brand new and work really good how much more do you want to know that is 200 watt system is no good not enough power he just told you that and I tell you my 2600 and something watts is a little too small for my house but after a few hours it will run everything in my house when I need it. But my solar panels and my solar chargers always ask for more batteries tell me I do not have enough I have 12 volt batteries I have 12 volt converters that run 120 volts and I got a converter or two that runs 240 250 or 50 amps to run my kitchen stove which is something like 2,900 watts too 3,600 watts and that's why it takes a few hours of daylight to run my kitchen stove which batteries do well for in the morning from the day before yes I would like more solar panels I say I don't got enough solar panels because I probably really don't but it does give me enough power in today's time even in a snowy day to run my house and a couple Paul saws and drills my weed eater my rototiller my mower so so yeah it's probably enough power to run everything I need but I really don't think it is cuz it's saying you need sunlight to charge your batteries and most times my battery is a charged when there's no sun out but when we do get sun in the summer I get sent from what 4:35 in the morning to 8:30 at night. In the winter I get some light from 7:00 to 4:30 at night or should I say daylight cuz most of the times that sounds not out especially when it's snowing and cloudy all the time or just cloudy with no sun in the sight but you still got daylight. So is that what you really wanted to know? Oh and I forgot to tell you I also have four 25 watt solar panels but two of them are not hooked up yet and my 15 watt solar panels I'm 18 watt panels are disconnected right now cuz I'm doing some work with my battery stands so I can put more batteries because I don't like my battery is getting less than 10% down in power or in this case I like that I have 40-year-old batteries that still work like today if you go out and buy a new one which I will be doing soon and still using my 40-year-old Good batteries as well as my 10-year-old my 35-year-old and my 25 year old batteries that I use for my solar panels and pretty soon I have one year old or should I say less than a month old batteries and yes I buy lead acid batteries because I can't afford $2,000 for a battery when $2,000 for batteries would actually get me 20 batteries or 22 batteries of lead acid batteries at 1,000 amp which is 135 amp hours each and I only like using 10 amp hours out of each so that they'll never die or in this case I could use probably 60 amp hours and they'll probably never die is that more of a better question or an answer to a question that you want to know. And yes I did find more solar panels to buy and yes I'm using my 25-26 year old solar panels and it still give me the same amount of water that they did the same day I bought them so they work like if they're brand new but they're just old but if you take care of your solar panels keep them clean take care of the wires keep up keep on your upkeep on them they should never die they should never get old they should always work like if they're a brand new at least that's what works for me with my solar panels my wiring for it and my batteries and solar chargers and converters keep everything always good clean nice neat fix wires going to go bad or when they get old the last you forever. And I've been using solar panels since I bought this house at first I did have electric company hooked up to it and I didn't have very many solar panels but I didn't have to pay for TV or lights to run and now I don't need electric company at all but that's probably a bad thing because if I get more solar panels I could tell them electricity even though they won't pay very much for it it would actually be a very good living just collecting all that money that they give me. Of course generac said that they'll come over and put solar panels on my roof hook it up with the electric company and I'll make some money about $2,094 bucks a month but generac hasn't come over yet and they told me this close to 4 months ago but my neighbor my new neighbor actually they just moved in told me that he works for generac for not the same thing I want generic to do for me but for something else a generac is really busy all the way up through September of 2022 so backed up it'll be that long before they might be able to get to my house but that's not good I want them sooner than later.
👍 very Informative and straightforward, I'm a month into my Tramper ctc build and getting into the solar part now.
Thank you for keeping it simple and the easy to understand explanation.
Just saw your channel . You are telling like it is and this is greatly needed .Subscribed . Than - You from the undemocratic state of Canada .
Thanks a ton for your kind words!!
Wish everyone was this simple. Thanks dude
Fill the freezer section of the mini fridge with water bottles. The thermal mass will make it not have to work as hard.
Then you don't have to play with the thermostat.
The fuller a fridge is, the less hard it works after everything is already cold.
another point i would add, especially if there are kids around, is to not open the fridge/freezer door to much or for too long. i think we all have the habit of just staring into the fridge trying to figure out what you want to eat when we are home, but that is something I discourage with our smaller propane fridge in the RV.
Any appliances that produces heat are energy monsters. A basic coffee pot requires 900 watts.
Adding an extra battery is an excellent idea! 👍👍
And running that battery alone on solar?????? Coffee is important!
Put your coffee pot over a small campfire and have no battery drain.
What about an induction burner?
It was really helpful, and I really appreciate the time and effort you took to make it, thank you!
200 watts of solar, one mpp 12 volt all in one Inverter, solar charge controller and ac charger, one Battleborn battery.
For about 1500$ you can boondock all weekend, run a dorm fridge on medium, a fantastic fan, and a CPAP.
I do this in my topper on a pickup.
Accurate, good video! Yep, run your fridge-tater... Watch movies on an iPad and bring a couple big USB battery banks to recharge it. You can run a small USB fan off a battery bank too. To go totally off grid for like days, like with AC, you'll need waaay more than those 200 watts.
Thank you so much Dave! I finally can stop searching for answers
Thank you for the information. Your explanation is, so far, the easiest to understand I've found. Again, so far, every other video I've watched has been so full of jargon, I had no idea what the person was talking about. Maybe I'm touchy, but I was getting some kind of ticked off as searched for a video to tell me, basically, what I need to run a fridge/freezer and maybe a television. I could go on and on. THANK YOU for your presentation!!!
Thanks a ton!! Glad it was helpful
Thank-you for the frank talk. I'm looking to make more of my budget about the battery bank now and settle on a 200 W system.
Priceless data. Thanks for sharing that.
So more batteries = more power from a 200 watt solar array. Thanks that is super helpful
Great video and good advice, I enjoyed watching it. Thanks Dave
Glad it was helpful! Thanks
We lived full-time in a 35 foot motorhome, for five years, with all the solar backup 300 watts and 4 - 6v battery bank and even tried the solar water heater with the black tubing and a 35 gal water tank...Most of the time We were hooked into shore power...Its good to know you have a backup system and I forgot the on-board gas generator...It's a lifestyle some people struggle with...You have to give up the stuff and live a minimalist lifestyle...
Or build a monster system
Thanks, as a new RV owner this helps me get a good idea of my solar needs.
Thank you. I will check out some of your other things. A joy
Thanks man. Super helpful. Happy camping!
I'm glad you did share because I don't know LOL even though it's been a year since you made that video I learned a lot thank you so much
Brilliant Dave. Great information.
Thanks for the help.
I enjoyed this and learned a lot. Thank you!
Excellent use of your generator. I have a 11kw generac and only run it when I've been without sun for a couple of days. That way it runs the house and brings the batteries back to approximately an 80% charge just after running the engine generator for a couple of hours. By using the generator in this fashion it puts a full load on the generator and that is actually more efficient than if my generator only has a 50% load on it.
I just finished restifying a 1973 Holiday Camper trailer. It is 7x15, and all I need is power to run a fridge the same size as in this video. I figured a 200 watt system would be sufficient. I was looking at a Renogy or Eco-Worthy kit from Amazon Canada, preferably with a 50 Ah battery. I also have a generator handy in case of emergencies.
Maybe a timer on the fridge from 11pm to 6am would save you a little more battery power. While the fridge is closed on the over night it will stay nice and cold when the door isn't being opened.
yes, I will need to get a timer, great idea
Making sure to make ice during the day for the beer at night! 🤪🤪
An awesome upgrade is a portable refrigerator. They come in various sizes. Many can run at 60w but have an eco 40w mode. They are built like a chest freezer, so hold cold air better than an upright fridge.
Many also have a battery saver mode to protect the batteries from low voltage.
Either way, keep the fridge full uses less power. If possible freeze a couple bottled waters and place those in the fridge at night.
Solar panels are cheap now, you can add a couple of ground panels to your setup. Golf cart 6v batteries will work better, but you need 2 or 4 , you can't use 3. Also picking up a 12v fridge will help with efficiency.
A 12v frig may work better in SOME situations depending on the size of frig and battery bank.
Thank you . . You help me a lot. I really do appreciate it.
This video was helpful and interesting. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful! thanks
Thank you for the information. Very helpful.
Thanks for the solar advice . very helpful
thanks Gus!
How can we know that my battery was fully charge Gus
Just a good ol boy. Never meanin no harm.
200w will produce 16 amps per hour
It will take 6 hours to charge that 100 amp marine battery from dead to full, so in a real world setting where you aren't killing it completely, you're looking at about 3-4 hours to charge up.
Adding more batteries won't really help. And to explain why, you can think of your electrical system like it's water.
The batteries in your system are just buckets, you fill them up with water so that you can use it later. But the water has to come from somewhere. The solar panels are your garden hose. You put the hose in the bucket, which fills it with water. Once the bucket is full, you can take the hose out and just use the hose directly to water whatever you need. And if you need a little extra, you can scoop some water from the bucket now and then.
Once the sun goes down, you turn the hose off, and now all your water has to come from the bucket. If you're using a lot of water, it won't last long, and then the next day you won't have much water to use either because you need to spend time filling up the bucket first.
So you decide to add more buckets, that way you have more water to use when the hose is off. Let's say you go from one bucket to five buckets. And to make it easy, we'll say you use one and a half buckets of water every night.
So you start with five full buckets the first night, and by the next morning three and a half are still full, and the hose is refilling the ones you used. Problem solved right? Not necessarily.
Let's say these buckets hold six gallons of water each. And your garden hose puts out six gallons of water a day.
By the second night, your five buckets are only 4.5. The third night you're down to 4. Then 3.5, etc. By the tenth night, you have no water left. You haven't solved the problem, you've just stretched it out over a longer time.
Now I understand that in this example, ten days of reserves is probably adequate for any camping trip. I'm not saying that this idea wouldn't work in theory, I'm just saying it's going about it in the wrong way. It's masking the problem, not solving it. It's inefficient and costly.
Ideally you want to produce and store 200% of what you'll use in a day. So if your appliances use "six gallons" of electricity a day, you'll want to store 12. But having the storage capacity is pointless if you don't have enough supply to refill it. So if you can store twelve, then you need a system that can supply at least that same amount, preferably more.
200w panels produce about 16 amps after accounting for loss.
So that means in a typical day with 5-6 hours of good strong sunlight, you can get about 100 amps a day. Those marine batteries are usually 100 amp batteries, so a 200w array with two of those batteries gives you 200% storage capacity, 50 amp hours (half of maximum output) of supply during daylight hours, and an additional 50 amp hours (the other half of maximum output) for night time. For a total of 100 amps of usable power every 24 hours.
If you add more batteries, or replace them with higher capacity batteries above 200 amp hours, you'll also need to increase the amount of solar power being generated.
Since the amount of power you can effectively use per day (regardless of the number of batteries) is equal to the output of the panels you have, you can then do some simple math on appliances to see if your system is adequate.
You said you run a mini fridge, so let's work through that.
Your standard mini fridge uses about 70 watts of power per hour. 70 watts of 120v ac is ~0.6 amps per hour. So it takes 14.5 amps per day to run a mini fridge for 24 hours. Since your panels will generate power for about 25% of that time, the other 75% will come from the batteries (see why the panel output is important?).
So about 3.5 of the 14.5 amps will come from the panel, and the remaining 11 from the battery.
....except a fridge runs on ac, and our panels produce DC, so it must be converted. When you convert you can expect an average loss of 35% for a larger appliance like a fridge, and something like a single light bulb can be as much as 95%!
So when we multiply everything by 1.35 we get a truer sense of how much is being used. The mini fridge actually consumes about 20 amp hours per day, 15 of which come from the battery.
Phone chargers are another fun example, because they use DC. So you're converting DC, to ac, back to DC. Let's say the charger uses one amp just for an easy example. We have to work backwards from the draw to the supply, and a phone charger has about a 40% loss. So our 1 amp going into the phone requires 1.4 amps into the charger. Now the supply for the charger is also being inverted, and we'll use that 35% loss number from earlier. So for the charger to get 1.4 amps, the inverter must draw 1.89 amps. That's an 89% loss from start to end!
Very good explanation of how the system works. I used 200 watt system in this example because this is what is typical of a new camper. Many folks new to camping and new to solar like to know capabilities. Many are also retired/senior citizens and may struggle adding more solar panels on roof.
Thanks again for thorough explanation
takes me in a good direction, thanks
The info was helpful, thank you.
Great information for me. Thanks pops.
Consider buying the EG4 Mini split AC for your camper or home.
It runs all day on solar, and the panels come with it.
It also heats in the winter.
Yes. I’ve been looking into that. Nice system
Kinda small batteries, +200w ain't killing it either.... Interesting and so glad to see a common affordable setup at work
not bad. I got under $500 in complete setup, which is not too bad. Doing away with the Dometic fridge was well worth the $500
Thanks Dave.
THANK YOU IT WAS VERY HELP FULL
Thank you, you made it clearer for me.
Awesome!!!
Bigger 🔋 will do. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you and I am glad someone else uses walmart batteries lol. Thank you again
There's an individual named Steven Harris who wrote a book called Sunshine two dollars. He made a nice system using a small refrigerator like yours of course he ripped it all apart yada yada. Long story short he took the condenser coil and stuck it in water so it helped cooling a gas back down from the compressor which increases deficiency tremendously. You can also line the outside of the refrigerator with isocyanate board AKA blue board pink board insulation comes in different thicknesses with I believe the match thickness of two inches. This will allow you to run other things. Keep up the good work
Thank you! Helps a lot
Awesome. Keep us well informed as howkish salespeople are all over trying to make a kill with newbie home owners especially in Africa.
Kindly shed more light on how to detect fake substandard panels.
Thank You this is clear talking not that technical shit,.! i,m also taking a 200w but have one accu off 140amps. no micrro ore curling iron hahaha love it thanks dude,.!
Thank you mate, this was great
When i am dry camping i run my fridge on propane and it only uses the batts when lighting the igniter which isn’t much and the light inside the fridge when open, there will prolly be a small amount of draw for the circuit board in the fridge that controls it. Uses very little electricity while on propane never had to turn things down at night or worry about it. I have 2 6volt batts and a zamp portable 160watt solar kit that i set up out on the ground. Runs lights, fridge and furnace for the night no problems. Still run the geni if we want to use ac or microwave which we rarely ever use. Run my tv on a bluetti ac50s SoGen at night for a movie and use a bluetti EB55 SoGen for my Cpap
Arrange things in the fridge and you will spend less time with the door open if you know where to grab what you want.
THANKS FOR THE INFORMATION MANY BLESSINGS
Nice video. Greetings from Jamaica.
Very good video learned a lot thank you
Thanks Dave, and the iceco frig I have only pulls around .8 Ah so for 12 overnight hours that’s around 10 Ah of my 100Ah marine agm battery used overnight, around 90% battery charge left by morning. During most days my 250w of solar can push around 18-20 amps max per hour to my battery, plenty for daytime full usage of various devices, including electric cooktops and other appliances. Good idea on night on/off frig timer!
Following
What is the wattage car inverter do you use 👍
@@kayatautari6513 icego is a 12v fridge
thanks for your information and experience. you helped me feel even more confident that the 100w system i just ordered to start out with will likely meet my simple off grid needs. my fridge will run on propane, leaving my battery bank to be consumed by led bulbs and small electronics.
If you do buy a battery I'll tell you a secret do not buy them at Walmart trust me you be sorry I learn my mistake long time ago
@@garyrichmond7857 dang. I got 2 lawn mower batteries from there
@@garyrichmond7857 why not if you don't mind me asking? We're new RVers and just got a new deep cycle rv/marine battery from Walmart
Cool fridge. Mine is 3.1 cubic ft. My mid sized 540 wh 500 watt solar power stations are just large enough to handle the compressor surge (but not my 5 cubic ft freezer) and run the fridge up to 24+ hours unless it`s very hot. If it was sunny each day I could run it indefinately if I leave the power station connected to a 100 watt solar panel. I put as many bottles of water as I can in the little freezer section which is inside the refrigerator section so if the battery dies I have several more hours of cooling. I got this stuff because of hurricanes. My Bluetti EB70 power stations can handle to surge of my freezer and can run it about 20-24 hours.
New to this & a new sub - thank you! God Bless👍👍💜❤🇺🇸🙏
Thanks neighbor!
Thanks for this.
Very useful information .
Thanks for sharing, we are looking to get a camper but, undecided on how much solar to get and Batt's
Fantastic video! Helpful, straight to the point, and educational. Thank you sir!
Thanks!!!
I worked for a carnival for 2 years, lived in a small camper, most of the time i only had a 10 inch tablet, my phone and a couple of 7x power banks for charging phones , which i kept on charger as I worked the food wagon during day. The owner was to cheap to get electric for the camper. But i got by just fine , it was fun traveling around city after city, beside sleeping it was fun exploring other cities so living was different than, say in a house , just needed sleep . This two battery and 200 w solar will operate a coffee maker just fine, the rest of my day I was working or seeing the city. So my sparse power with a tablet for my movies was perfect.
I just picked up a small travel trailer, a Jayflight SLX 195RBW (Baja). I added 400w solar panels and 200Ah of lithium batteries. Also added a 3000w inverter. The fridge is an 8cf 12v unit. I won’t run the air conditioner when boondocking, but I might run it fan only. I set the inverter up so I actually have to plug it in to the shore power inlet, seemed an easier installation. 115v to 30a block, short heavy duty extension cord from inverter to the converter block, then the standard 30a dogbone to the trailer. At home, I can connect to an outside outlet, it becomes a guest room if needed. Dry camping - judicious use of the microwave should be okay. My coffee maker is non-electric, stovetop drip, looks just like an electric.
Great info. Thanks for sharing!
Great video.
thanks Dave
Thank you it is helpful
if you freeze some ice in the daytime you can use that to stay cold during the night when the fridge is not powered
Yeah great idea I like that thank you
Very helpful! Thanks for the information!
Thank you so much for all this information. Great content. New subscriber. God Bless you.
Thanks!!! May God bless you as well
@@davesrvchannel4717 You'r welcome. Thank you I appreciate that.
Very helpful! Thanks!
"It's really the battery bank that limits the use of the system." Try a "Solar Generator" battery unit. A lot of them now do some sort of "energy hoisting," where they channel their power into a stronger shape, re resistive loads, which are a lot of the loads you'll use: coffee maker, refrigerator, (space heater?). You'd have to activate the energy "lifting" option, but it would make many more appliances able to run. It would of course take longer to charge back to level, but the option might work for what you want.
Very informative and makes sense....
Thanks!
Awesome stuff... great napkin math and reality check
Appreciate it!
very helpful thanks
Hi ya.
I have been collecting solar gear for a couple years now. I have 2-+100 watt mono panels, 9 of the 15 watt Harbor Freight panels ( 3 45 watt kits), with the el cheapo Thunderbolt 45 watt charge controllers. Also have a Thunderbolt 500 watt/40 amp charge controller. Then a 1200 watt, and a 500 watt inverter.
Battery storage is around 650aH total: 2- 100aH 12 volt, and 2-232aH 6 volt golf cart batteries in series.
I use one 12 volt battery and both 6 volt batteries on the 500 watt charge controller. and1200 watt inverter.
The 3 small (3-15 watt) or 45 watt systems are all in parallel through the stock 45 watt controllers, and into the 500 watt inverter with the last 100aH battery.
Yea6, two systems. 3 actually. as I use one of the 45 watt controllers as a 12 volt system only. For charging phones, a tablet and 2-way radios.
I realize it sounds like a cobbled together mess. It is. But I've only spent about $150 total.
I can run my fridge, a 40" TV and DVD player, a 20" fan a pair of 12 volt LED lamps, and 2 100 lite mini Christmas lite strings.
I cut my power bill by more than half. That6a deal. Huh?
I'm looking for a deal on some 200 or 250 watt panels. Open box, used whatever.
I figure one of these days, we're gonna find ourselves in a grid down situation. EMP, Solar flares, something. I don't like sitting in dark.
Thanks.
Thanks 👍
Thanks, I'm looking at a 200w with 3 batteries.
great info ,, thanks
I'm as Green as it gets to solar. I've watched a few videos on this diy solar, had a few doubts on how much a small system could power, you layer it down perfectly, I really understand now ,well explained Dave, thank you
Thanks a bunch I appreciate it
@woooudo that would take a bunch of battery power. You’d spend a fortune in batteries to do that. This video is about a 200 watt system. You’d need much larger. You can get small propane cooktop for $25 at flea market or new for $60 or so.
@woooudo I don’t do discord sorry.
Yes sir good content thanks
Good info. 😊👍
I have a 400 watt set up with 6 rv batteries. I have the black and decker version of that same freezer fridge. On partly sunny days I can run that fridge , a TV, radio, or blue ray player, and a light or two if needed all day all night.and I'm never entertaining myself day and night lol too much swimming cooking and fishing to do.
Oh yea and a fan while I'm in it.
THANK YOU SIR!!
Thanks...
I also got several usb fans , which getting usb devices will greatly improve solar efficiency
This is the best video! Exactly what I was looking for. I just spent 160 on 2 rv deep cycle 100ah batteries at Walmart today. Ill be getting two 100w solar panels to put on my 22' rv trailer. One question I have is what do you do to see what your batteries are at? Does your charge controller tell you?
Yes, my charge controller tells me where my battery levels are at. If you can keep battery levels at or above 12.5, they will last you more years of service. Never go below 12.0. Good luck with your new solar setup!
@@davesrvchannel4717 what charge controller do you have?
@@Develoquent I think I got from HQ Solar. Not recommended. Any decent one should display battery level
Yes, most charge controllers will at least tell you your battery's static voltage. Mine is a cheap little Chinese model but it monitors the battery voltage nicely.
The trick to RV solar use can boil down to using propane when you need any kind of heat. I run a water pump, an evaporative cooler(only in the daytime), a car radio/CD player, about 6 led lights and a USB fan and charge my phone directly from the charge controller. All off one large deep cycle battery. I do this 7 days a week when I camp host in the summer at sunny locations.
I have to conserve in woods due to the shade of course.