Decided on a Trailer and Solar Question

[Kudzu Asheville]

Thanks to everyone for the input! Little by little I am getting a handle on our solar needs. I guess we won't know for sure until we put it to the test.

I appreciate all the feedback!

Leslie

[Roger C H]

Now admission to this blog means you have to keep us up-to-date on your experiences with your camper. This means pictures, etc. Inquiring minds will want to know!

One thing that is missing in helping us to evaluate your prospects is what is the intended use for your rig? Weekending? Full timing? Occasional trips?

Good luck with your choice and many happy camping times to you and yours.

[David Tilston]

Costco is selling a Coleman 60 W cell, with an 8' cable, battery clamps, a 12 VDC socket, with battery clamps, a plug in green diagnostic LED, 200 W inverter, and a 7 A solar PWM controller, (exactly enough for two panels) for $170.

My son just bought two of them. For Christmas I got him a 40 W Coleman cell, with the same controller for $100. I got one for me as well. I bought his present from him for $100, so his upgrade from 40 W to 120 W cost him $240. We will both be making our cells into a fold up portable array.

At Christmas, I told him 40 W was enough for lights, and to charge his phone and portable game system. He wanted the additional power to run a microwave. With enough battery, I figure he could run a 700 W microwave for about a half an hour, and his LED lights. He will need a 1000 W inverter though. I hope I can find another one for less then $40.

[Night Sailor]

I had another thought. If you purchased the camper with a compressor type fridge, then more solar panels make sense. I have 6 panels on my camper and am now thinking about swapping out my fridge for a DC compressor type fridge, so I could eliminate the need for propane to run the fridge. My goal is to be as independent of fossils fuels as possible. I am not sure it is worth the cost for me, but since you are buying new, you may want to consider a compressor type electric fridge and skip the absorption type propane/ electric fridge commonly found in RVs.

A 5' tall compressor type fridge uses 39 Amp Hours per day, and in the summer when you need it more , there is more sunlight. 200 watts of panels would run one of these according to my research. If you do a search on off grid cabin refrigerator there is a good study done by a Professional Engineer.

[Kudzu Asheville]

Originally Posted by Roger C H

Now admission to this blog means you have to keep us up-to-date on your experiences with your camper. This means pictures, etc. Inquiring minds will want to know!

One thing that is missing in helping us to evaluate your prospects is what is the intended use for your rig? Weekending? Full timing? Occasional trips?

Good luck with your choice and many happy camping times to you and yours.

Thanks Roger! No pics yet, but I will post pics when we get to pick her up in June.

We will be weekending and doing multi-week trips in the summer. Barry and I are fortunate to be on academic contracts that allow us a month off in the summer. We are looking forward to weekend trips in Western North Carolina and to longer road trips in the summer to explore National and State Parks with our 8 year old daughter.

Leslie

[Kudzu Asheville]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

I had another thought. If you purchased the camper with a compressor type fridge, then more solar panels make sense.

Thanks Conrad. We are purchasing a dealer "model" so it comes already equipped and has a 2-way fridge, but, in the future we may want to make that change.

[Kudzu Asheville]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Costco is selling a Coleman 60 W cell, with an 8' cable, battery clamps, a 12 VDC socket, with battery clamps, a plug in green diagnostic LED, 200 W inverter, and a 7 A solar PWM controller, (exactly enough for two panels) for $170.

My son just bought two of them. For Christmas I got him a 40 W Coleman cell, with the same controller for $100. I got one for me as well. I bought his present from him for $100, so his upgrade from 40 W to 120 W cost him $240. We will both be making our cells into a fold up portable array.

At Christmas, I told him 40 W was enough for lights, and to charge his phone and portable game system. He wanted the additional power to run a microwave. With enough battery, I figure he could run a 700 W microwave for about a half an hour, and his LED lights. He will need a 1000 W inverter though. I hope I can find another one for less then $40.

That sounds like a cool project! We are not handy so are having ours dealer installed. I look forward to seeing pics of how yours turns out!

[Ice-breaker]

Originally Posted by peterh

...If you live in Canada, particularly northern Canada, heaven help you, you'll never get enough sun, even if you scrape the snow off.

Ha Ha. Maybe winter months. In summer the number of sunlight hours in a day is greater than experienced by those in southern climes.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

I had another thought. If you purchased the camper with a compressor type fridge, then more solar panels make sense. I have 6 panels on my camper

Keep in mind you have a Bigfoot truck Camper with a very high & large flat roof area for mounting all those panels out of sight. Few here with fiberglass trailers have that amount of flat area to mount panels and even less so in the case of the Alto trailer the OP is purchasing.

[Timber Wolf]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

........ I am not sure it is worth the cost for me, but since you are buying new, you may want to consider a compressor type electric fridge and skip the absorption type propane/ electric fridge commonly found in RVs...........

Great point on cost. The 12v or 12v/120v refrigerators may not be much, if any, cheaper than the propane fueled versions but if you changing out or starting fresh then why not. With the reduced cost of solar panels it just makes sense to simplify things and get away from fossil fuels. I started out my adult life living in a very old park model trailer, and although I did not have any problems I have a real aversion to burning anything in such an enclosed space. I know propane appliances work and work well but they are not for me. I ditched the non-working refrigerator from my 1988 Scamp in favor of a 120v "dorm" fridge I already had. It was an easy decision especially since most of my camping plans for the immediate future include sites with 120v hook ups (and showers). But, for the more distant future I am planning a 12v refrigerator and solar panels to run it (and new batteries and charge wizard).

[Night Sailor]

Originally Posted by Carol H

Keep in mind you have a Bigfoot truck Camper with a very high & large flat roof area for mounting all those panels out of sight. Few here with fiberglass trailers have that amount of flat area to mount panels and even less so in the case of the Alto trailer the OP is purchasing.

With flexible panels they have lots of space and oriented properly they would have a better angle also. With the roof down, if away for a few hours, the angle could be even better. They have lots of options. In any case one or two panels is great for them, and since they want these dealer installed, erring on the more is better side is not a bad idea.

Also, many people prefer to park I the shade so remote arrays make sense for some people.

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by Night Sailor

With flexible panels they have lots of space and oriented properly they would have a better angle also.
.

I actually use the movable panels here on the west coast due to often having a large overhead tree canopy and yes having an angled room on the trailer the OP is getting would help but *only* if they can actually park the trailer at the correct angle to the sun. As you know if camping in state parks etc the orientation as to what direction the trailer sits is often not an option.

Suspect that due to the big sloop on the rear and front of the OP's trailer that getting actual sun on those areas could turn out to be an issue. Not to mention aesthetics - but that may just be a female thing! Suspect they would get the best solar results in the small area at the peak of the trailer were it appears the manufacture installs their panels.

[accrete]

Greetings Leslie and congrats on your upcoming arrival. I really like the Safari Condo rigs, very creative.

One thing that came to my mind some time ago was the possibility that the _south side_ of the Condo, say the curb side if parked that way, would most likely need an awning on the very top lip of the roof as there is quite a bit of view-ports/windows going on in the design. If you ended up parked in direct sunlight to charge the roof mounted solar panels all the sun coming through said windows might create some heat to vent out?? That said, again, i think the rigs are beautiful!

As others have said, get the solar to the max...you can always add batteries later.

Oh, and you mentioned it would have a fantastic fan? You might ask them if they can put up a MaxxFan 5100K instead. Here is a picture of the two in comparison... we took off the FF on our van and put a MF in its place so we could have the fan going during rainy days.

fantastic fan and MaxxFan compared:


ALSO, other MF owners will state that the MF has much nicer controls. AND it should be a no-extra-cost swap for the trailer manufacturer (Parkliner swaped out for zero$$)

Cheers,
Thom