Inverters and Power Draw

[honda03842]

"I'm convinced that we could stay out indefinitely with our set up "

Byron and Anne,

I'm convinced you could stay out indefinitely as well. In some measure it's a state of mind and in some measure like most abilities, if you've done it once you know you know you can do it again.

People who haven't spent a week, a month or even longer in a small space, can not imagine how adequate 13 or 16 x 6.5 feet can be. This particularly true from the outside of the trailer, once they come in they begin to feel it might be possible.

We have set up our trailer for the next 11 months. We do think our computers, nook and TV are important. We love the travel, the adventure and newness of places and things, but there are vestiges of our past we still are attached to hence the large amount of electronics. This year we've been doing a lot of Skyping and will be using it to keep in touch with family.

Wishing you and Anne continued adventures...

[Red-Dwarf]

What service do you use for internet access?

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by Red-Dwarf

What service do you use for internet access?

Being cheap, I use wifi hot spots. McDonald's and Star Bucks plus many many other places have free wifi. A few state owned campgrounds have wifi, the one in Westwego LA has free wifi. Some Denny's, some Elemer's Pancake houses. The list goes on and on and on. I've never had any trouble finding a wifi hot spot when I wanted one. The store in Big Bend NP had free wifi. Quartzsite, AZ senior center works good, that one's $5.00 per year membership in senior center. Libraries are another good place.
Hope this helps a bit.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Red-Dwarf

What service do you use for internet access?

We have had a Verizon wireless card for about 4 years. It is expensive. When we intially bought the service free wireless was not as available as it is today and few campgrounds or MacDonalds had wireless.

We use the service year round and is what we use as our home wireless system in the summer, it can support 5 computers at once and this is often the case with summer guests. Since we're on the road so much, we've had no home Internet system or home phone land line system for at least four years. When home we use what we use on the road. This helps justify our costs.

We will eliminate the wireless card when we upgrade our phones to wireless 4G smart phones. Smart phones have the ability to create a 5 computer hotspot. We've just been waiting for the 4G situation to further settle in terms of phones available.

We do use wireless hot spots in Canada where our wireless plan is not active. Canada has the Community Access Program where no matter the size of the community there is a place where you can go and have wireless access. It is not always at a library, since many small towns don't have one; it may be a town hall or community building.

The issue for us is we want continuous access to wireless, particularly when we're home (in the trailer) in the evening. When you're gone for long periods we need it for all kinds of things, from banking to human contact. We justify our satellite dish in the same way. We dropped Comcast at home and switched to Satellite Dish with similar reasoning

The reason we keep the smart card is because we're often in locations where there simply isn't any wireless like the middle of the Blackhills, yet we still get our Verizon wireless Internet.

Byron we tend to be conservative with our money as well and find RVing, even with a wireless to be significantly less expensive then staying home. I do agree that today it is often possible to take advantage of the numerous wireless hot spots.

Also I do believe that smart and smarter phones are really reducing the need for many electronic items I felt were important when we started traveling. I now use my existing phone for email, geo caching, gps, still and video camera, low order note taking, sometimes book reading, and occasionally news. With my next itteration (sp) of smart phone this will further expand.

Safe travels

[Byron Kinnaman]

I've been watching the high speed networks associated with the cell phone system. As soon as I can get a reliable cell phone system that works as fast as my cable at home I'll make the switch. Right now the speeds aren't there. Our cell phones are not smart phones. I might change that once the high speed cell phone connections are increased and reliable.
As far as the amount of electronic equipment we carry, it's a bunch.
2 cell phones
2 Kindle ebook readers
2 Palm PDAs
3 Digital cameras
3 GPS receivers
2 computers
1 printer
4 or 5 Ham Radios
It seems like there's something else I can't think of it at the moment.

It's all in what works for you.
My goal has been and to be off the grid as much as possible. My trailer is my escape pod so then when the infrastructure fails I'll have a place doesn't need it to be comfortable.

Happy travels. Someday I might have to go back to Labrador. Was there 63/64. I was leaning against the news teletype at the TV station when President Kennedy was shot.

[rufus thirteen]

Don't believe the ratings printed on equipment. That's the maximum rating for fire protection purposes. Get a Kill-a-Watt meter and measure peak and long term AC power consumption.

1A at 120v from an inverter is going to be 10A draw on your 12V battery (+what your inverter uses). One of the advantages of having a 24v or 48v house battery is that current is reduced proportionally for the same Power (Watts) output. 1A @120v is 5A from a 24v bank, and only 2.5A from a 48v bank (+ inverter losses).

Cheers.

[WildBirder]

Enjoying the thread. Both parts. original inverter/power draw and internet use. Now to further the highjacking of the thread. There are some good websites that list all the local free wifi sites per city across the US and Canada. Plus an app called wi-fi finder. The information can be downloaded to your computer or device for reference on the go. They are user content created. I've found it accurate and invaluable while traveling south of the border.

Cheers,
Mark

[DavidSo]

On the subject of measuring consumption, here is a simple little tool that just works great! I've had mine for years and I've measured everything I own. It will read in watts or amps with the flip of a switch. I've actually learned a lot about the power needs of all kinds of devices using it.

Reliance Amwatt Appliance Load Tester | Electrical Tools | Northern Tool + Equipment

David