Solar success

[2 for Him]

I am as happy as a dead pig in the sunshine! No pun intended.

Sitting in Target tree NFS campground between Durango and Cortez CO, running the laptop off the solar panels, still putting 4 amps into my batteries, oops, just got full, controller is cutting back the amps on absorb. We have been dry camping for 4 days without running a generator but to dry the wifes hair for 15 minutes. We watch TV as much as at home, have plenty of light (all LEDs), run the Fantastic Fan all day and the laptop for hours when we have service and still have batteries that read 12.6 volts in the mornings. Even been in a fairly shaded campground and run the furnace to take the chill off in the morning.
See you when we see you.

Solar setup:
3 85 watt panels
2 232 AH GC batteries
20 Amp PWM charge controller.

[LonnieB]

Right on! I've been wanting to go solar ever since we bought the trailer, just haven't had the time or energy, pun intended

[twindman]

Regarding the LEDs... I have looked into them and the brightest seem to be 250 lumens. The incandescent are 400 lumens. These are for the small lamp bulbs above our chairs.
So, even tho the lumens are less, do they stll seem as bright while reading or not.
Thanks.

[2 for Him]

Tom,
Don't know the lumens on these, guess I could use the wifes digital Lux meter, but they are lots brighter than the 921's I replaced. You can't look directly at them, and they satisfied Georgia's color sense. She says she can't see under the "bluish white ones". Also food looks right under them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/High-Power-36-12...item27b5740117
We have 20 in the trailer and haven't lost one yet, even when equalizing the batteries.

[coyoterick]

quote:Originally posted by twindman

Regarding the LEDs... I have looked into them and the brightest seem to be 250 lumens. The incandescent are 400 lumens.

I haven't been able to find any LED's brighter than 250 lumens either. I replaced the bedroom reading lights with LED's and had to go back to incandescents since the LED's just didn't have the light output. I may have to give the eBay LED's a try that 2 for Him pointed out, the price is right at $4.99 with free shipping - at that price I can experiment a bit.

[twindman]

The ones I want to replace are the - I don't know what you call them - they have the base that you insert and twist. So with these you bought, did you replace dome lights? Or did you figure out a way to make them look nice and replace the wall lights somehow?

[Parts Ed]

I believe they are called Bayonet style bulbs.

[REPO]

quote:Originally posted by 2 for Him

Tom,
Don't know the lumens on these, guess I could use the wifes digital Lux meter, but they are lots brighter than the 921's I replaced. You can't look directly at them, and they satisfied Georgia's color sense. She says she can't see under the "bluish white ones". Also food looks right under them.
http://cgi.ebay.com/High-Power-36-12...item27b5740117
We have 20 in the trailer and haven't lost one yet, even when equalizing the batteries.

I ordered almost the exact same ones. Those are 36 LED panels, I went ahead and ordered the 48 LED panels with hopes they would be even brighter. Have not received them yet, but they should be here soon I would think.

[simonsrf]

Yep, solar is just a different way of life. You learn when and how to conserve. We just went 15 days in a row without running the generator once. We run a freezer full time, 2 computers, charge our phones, two flat screen TV's and who knows what else. We spend time watching our usage, know when to turn the inverter on or off....it is pretty simple, just have to know how much you are using, and when to use it.

When the sun is shining, we don't miss being connected to the grid. There is just something about being self-contained...If you haven't done it, you're missing that freedom.

[2 for Him]

Hey fellas,
Been in the boonies, no service till lat today.I had trouble finding the 1056 (also 1004) base bulbs so I put one in a shop towel, broke it and soldered the wires to the filament wires. Actually I also soldered in a small full wave rectifier to lower the 15+ volts my batteries require to charge, also to not have to worry about polarity.
In the bed room lights I used bulbs from here http://www.dealextreme.com/c/car-led-light-bulbs-712 that are rated 408 lumens. We don't read there so just used one each to see our way to bed. The problem with Deal Extreme is it takes FOREVER to get anything from them. At least a month. More expensive and not as bright, blue white too.

As you can see I have spent a while and quite a few $s trying to find the right leds that are affordable.
I won't embarrass myself with the homade botches until I found the ones from Duan-LED.

Since my batteries are holding up so well I might invest in another inverter for the Microwave and hair curling iron.

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by 2 for Him

Hey fellas,
Been in the boonies, no service till lat today.I had trouble finding the 1056 (also 1004) base bulbs so I put one in a shop towel, broke it and soldered the wires to the filament wires. Actually I also soldered in a small full wave rectifier to lower the 15+ volts my batteries require to charge, also to not have to worry about polarity.
In the bed room lights I used bulbs from here http://www.dealextreme.com/c/car-led-light-bulbs-712 that are rated 408 lumens. We don't read there so just used one each to see our way to bed. The problem with Deal Extreme is it takes FOREVER to get anything from them. At least a month. More expensive and not as bright, blue white too.

As you can see I have spent a while and quite a few $s trying to find the right leds that are affordable.
I won't embarrass myself with the homade botches until I found the ones from Duan-LED.

Since my batteries are holding up so well I might invest in another inverter for the Microwave and hair curling iron.

Tom,
We run our microwave all the time off of our 2000 watt inverter, but we do watch the usage and try to plan ahead by not defrosting, and by using the gas stove more.

BTW, I don't need a curling iron (bald) and for some reason, the hair dryer broke...think it has a loose connection somewhere.

You might want to check with Firetrucker (Bob Grissom), he has a fantastic source for LED's. SUPERBRIGHT LEDS

I took out all of the standard overhead dual lamps (60 amps when all on) and replaced them with a single wedge LED. Not lots of light, but just enough to be able to get around....and with all of them on, we only use 2.8 amps....that's energy savings.

[2 for Him]

Robbie,
I looked into Superbright Leds, couldn't justify the 4 to 6 times the $5 cost of these. I replaced every light except the 3 bulb unit over the couch we never used for $100. All lamps on we only draw 2 amps and are more lit up than we were before.
I only have a small 400 watt inverter for the TV and satallite system and I'm just not sure that the microwave is worth the added expense of a large inverter. Is your 2000 watt a true sine wave model? Lots of people say I'll need that for a micro, but they say the same thing about computers and TVs and with my electronics knowledge I know better. The only reason for true sine I can see is full RMS power to the magnetron.
Thanks for the info.

[simonsrf]

quote:Originally posted by 2 for Him

Robbie,
I looked into Superbright Leds, couldn't justify the 4 to 6 times the $5 cost of these. I replaced every light except the 3 bulb unit over the couch we never used for $100. All lamps on we only draw 2 amps and are more lit up than we were before.
I only have a small 400 watt inverter for the TV and satallite system and I'm just not sure that the microwave is worth the added expense of a large inverter. Is your 2000 watt a true sine wave model? Lots of people say I'll need that for a micro, but they say the same thing about computers and TVs and with my electronics knowledge I know better. The only reason for true sine I can see is full RMS power to the magnetron.
Thanks for the info.

Tom,
We have a Xantrex 2000 watt inverter (pure sine) that fires all of the plugs in the coach....expensive? Yes, justifiable because of the way we use it. We're true boondockers, not experts on equipment, but we know what we have works exceedingly well for our lifestyle. We never are lacking for power when we use our tricks...and yes, those include LED's.....but then, we also run an ice maker, a freezer, 2 Flat screen TV's, the microwave, satellite TV recorders, charge our 6 6v batteries, our DC flashlight type batteries.....you know the list....still can't get the hair dryer or the curling iron to work yet though!

We have added to our system to where it just works perfect for the lifestyle we live. Took us some time to figure out usage, size, parts etc., but we are like you.....Happy as a dead pig in the sunshine!