On our '77 Palm Beach I completed the install of our solar system just over
two years ago. During those two years we have traveled over 25,000 miles,
*never* plugging into shore power or firing up the Onan. In the past two
Summers we have enjoyed boon-docking in fixed locations twice for 15+ days
in Oregon with our solar panels in full shade until after 10:00 a.m., and
twice for 30+ days in Texas with panels in shade until 9:00 a.m., and again
shaded by 6:00 p.m in the evening.
Our owner-installed system consists of:
7 panels of various sizes from various manufacturers rated 960 watts total
input.
2 identical Zamp ZS-30 amp charge controllers (front one controlling the 3
panels 470 watts, the rear one for 4 rear panels 490 watts).
5x100 amp Battle Born LiFePo4 lithium batteries (at 31 pounds each
weighing155 pounds total weight).
Victron BMV-700 with dongle for smart phone/tablet for remote battery
monitoring.
Zamp 2000PS 2000/4000 watt pure sine wave inverter.
All wiring and marine switches are one or more gauges heavier than
recommended, with fuses on all circuits.
As we never have had occasion to use our Onan generator, we passed it on to
another GMC owner at the recent Tallahassee GMC Rally, gaining a nice
"basement" storage compartment, while loosing two heavy lead acid batteries
in that same bay. If I refrain from filling that space with anvils, then
we have reduced the total GVW a net hundred pounds or more!
How is the system working out for us?
No, we don't even consider turning on the air conditioner! That is why we
have six Alcoas with good tread on the ground, and one on the spare rack,
so we can head to more moderate climates during the hot Texas Summers,
As half-time RVers for the past two+ years we do have around 400 days and
nights of experience inside our coach. Much of the time 2 or 3 of our
FanTastic Fans are circulating air throughout the coach as appropriate.
Our Norcold 12/120v compressor fridge keeps the ice cream firmly frozen at
a maximum of around 12-15 degrees, but usually around the zero mark (+/- a
couple of degrees), while drawing around 4 Ah when operating (about 60% of
the time). Almost all of our lighting has been converted to LED, so that
is not much of a burden on the system.
Both Lenore and I are somewhat dependent on modern technology to keep up
with all of our outside obligations that seem to follow us around in
"retirement." Lenore's laptop and large monitor, my 27 inch iMac desktop,
iPads and iPhones to keep our internet hot-spots humming, plus backup hard
drives spinning.
Most days we are traveling we will stop at a highly recommended eatery, and
our propane stovetop or oven is occasionally put to use. However we almost
always finish the day utilizing the 700 watt Black+Decker microwave to warm
up leftovers, reheat a few cups of coffee, grind fresh coffee beans to set
up Mr. Coffee for the following day, and such.
When we retire for the night, we usually have fans on (or possibly an
electric blanket if it is clod outside), the fridge running, electronics
devices and tools charging, etc cetera.
First one up in the morning usually flips on the Mr. Coffee maker using 900
watts, after the coffee is finished the microwave usually gets an
assignment or two, and often the toaster will crisp up some homemade bread,
electronic gadgets have been monitored for our daily dose of news from the
outside world, etc cetera.
By the time all of these morning activities are completed, checking the
status of the batteries will typically reveal that we are down to somewhere
between 85-90% of our reserve capacity remaining. Typically our battery
bank has fully recovered by 10;00 a.m., or if it is overcast or we are in a
particularly shady parking spot it might be noon or later before we hit
100%. It is very unusual to not fully recover, but there have been a few
times that everything (unusually unbroken cloudiness plus heavy electrical
demands over several consecutive days), all working against us have caused
us to get down to near 50%, but that has been the lowest we have depleted
our system, which quickly recovered as soon as the situation changed.
All of these comments about our experience with our system as installed are
based not on technical data of what should, or should not, be possible.
These are our actual experience using our system in the real RVing world.
With the benefit of the Victron instrumentation and its graphing ability I
can back up all of the experiences I've reported here. Did I over engineer
our system? Some would argue that I did, but it has provided for our
electrical energy needs, and has met all of our expectations. That was my
goal. Thus far it has met that goal with maintenance free energy for our
reasonable and conservative needs.
When I put the system specs out for bid by AM Solar of Springfield, Oregon,
their quote was over $21,000 to build a comparable system. Our actual cost
was within a few dollars of $7,000 total, plus a bit of sweat equity. The
most important of those dollars was for the $200 Victron battery monitoring
system!
If I were outfitting another GMC would I duplicate the same system? No
way, as I've learned so much in the process, while actually using the
system for the past two years. I'd make many improvements to get even more
useful energy for the buck. But we continue to enjoy our solar system
every day.
I so delight in handing an icy cold Shiner Bock to a fellow GMC owner
looking over my setup, and remind them that the frosty drink they are
holding in their hands is provided "compliments of the sun!"
Hugs,
Vern, Lenore, and Knibbles D. Kat
P.S. It is interesting and should be noted that the advertised wattage,
both on the attached decal and packaging of a microwave, is the "output"
wattage that heats the food, while the actual wattage used for operating it
is listed in the more complete manufacturers specification sheet as "input"
wattage. Thus as in our case for the smallest readily available microwave
it actually uses 1050 watts.
On Sun, Sep 8, 2019 at 8:39 AM John R. Lebetski via Gmclist <
> Bruce H., great synopsis. Back to original post, best bet for running
> refrigerator down the road is 3 way on DC mode. You chill it on AC shore
> power
> before trip, and go down road on DC to maintain temps. At fuel stops I
> simply hit OFF to not have the alternator have to play catch-up recharging
> house and running frig and coach once driving again Frig maintains cool
> fine on 20 min stop. If we stop for a while at a rest area for lunch and
> don't need generator due to nice weather, simple switch to Propane. You
> can go a looong time on propane parked or dry camping.
> --
> John Lebetski
> Woodstock, IL
> 77 Eleganza II
>
>
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--
Vern Crawford (and Lenore Langsdorf)
155 JJ Lane
Center Point, TX 78010
(618) 203-8296 Vern's cell
(830) 928-5550 Lenore's cell
VernCrawford
LenoreLangsdorf
