Question for the solar folks

[DQDick]

For those of you with solar, what do you do to take the chill off the rig on a desert morning? Presently we use a small ceramic heater and or the fireplace. I'm assuming the fireplace will draw too many amps, so what do you do? Also, do you ever cook using an electric fry pan, or is that another no no?

[H. John Kohl]

My first time last year I used propane for all heating (water and furnace) and cooling (refridgerator).
Inverter or generator for TV and morning Coffee and Microwave.

[Jolu]

When we are off the grid and on solar we use a Wave 6 propane heater. Very effective for those cool mornings you describe. I ran a propane hose with a shutoff from the right propane tank through the main bay and out the side of the stairs. Then I hook up an extension to that hose and then to the heater and I can place it anyplace in the coach.
I just connect the propane tank when I need it. I also use the propane tank for my BBQ.
Joe

[Bigboomer]

We are same as John, we now use propane for the frig, WH and Furnace. When we are off the grid our inverter will fire up the microwave and any other appliance except the A/C.
Remember that your frig, WH and furnace all need 12V power to run, especially the furnace which uses 12V for both the blower and the thermostat.
Joe's use of the Wave 6 is perfect since you do not need to fire up the furnace to get the chill off.
You can try and use the fireplace but as you noted the amp draw will be high. As long as you have a sunny day in the forecast and you don't pull the batteries past 50% then they should charge up sufficiently if you have no alternative but the fireplace.
When using the inverter to run other appliances you need to plan your day accordingly and not use big draw items in the evenings when the batteries will have to wait to be charged in the am with the sun. Not saying you can't, you just have to plan.
It also depends on the size of your bank of batteries. Two Trojan T-105's in Series/ Parallel you will have 225 amp/hours at 12V of which 112 is considered usable. If you have 4 you will have 225 usable amp/hours at 12V or about 2700 Watts of power.
As an example, if you turn on all of your 12V incandescent lights in the coach, say it is 24 bulbs, each bulb uses approx. .75 amps or 9 watts of power per hour. So each hour you would use 18 amps or 216 watts of power. This means you could burn them for about 12 hours if you have 225 amp/hours of storage before the batteries need a full charge.

Now if you change all you bulbs out with Michael and Kats LED's, then the same 24 bulbs would use about 1.39 amps or 16 watts per hour or about a week of use.

Now if you use your fireplace that should be about 1500W per hour which means you would get little less than 2 hours of use.

Two simple 12V or AC calculations to help you plan:

Amps to Watts: Watts = Amps x Volts
Watts to Amps: Amps = Watts/ Volts

Hope this helps.

[Mudchief]

Dick, I just use the furnace. The furnace only takes about 8 amps out of your battery if you run it for 1 hour. I just installed a Pro-Com blue flame heater for those days that are cool and you need some heat during the day. That way all the amps from the panels can go to charge the batteries.

[Rainer]

I've got one of these (picture and link, below), but it's been a while since I've used mine, since my Monte has solar panels as well as an Onan Marquis Gold 6500 watt LP generator.

Chill? What chill?

http://r1.coleman.com/ProductImages/...53-751_500.jpg

http://www.coleman.com/product/5053A751

Imbedded image change to a link as the image exceeds the MOC guideline of 800 x 600 pixels. http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...ad.php?t=40141
CRAFT-Guy

[Bigboomer]

quote:Originally posted by Rainer

I've got one of these (picture and link, below), but it's been a while since I've used mine, since my Monte has solar panels as well as an Onan Marquis Gold 6500 watt LP generator.

Chill? What chill?

http://www.coleman.com/product/5053A751

Nice....will have to look into one for the DW to keep her feeties warm!

[Alwims]

Dick the last post in this thread is what we use. We haven't run our furnace one time since I installed this. We run it off a 100lb tank, but it could be run off either of your 30lb tanks as well. http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...ad.php?t=52579 On edit, we have run our furnace when we ran out of propane and it wasn't near as comfortable in here with the furnace.

We get about a month of propane use with the 100lb tank and stand alone heater compared to about 3 days using the furnace and our 30lb tank. We've had a couple of 19 degree nights here in Prescott so far. As for the frying pan, you have to teach yourself what you can use and not use. I just cringe when my wife uses her hair drier. I'll look up at the gauges and the amp reading will be well over 120 amps and I just pray she finishes quickly. I've told her when we are fully boon docking she'll just have to have flat frizzy hair.

[Flymutt]

Dick, I think you would find interesting the following website:
www.gonewiththewynns.com.
at the top of the page click on rv'in
then on Solar Power
then on the video "A Day In the Life"
I find the entire website entertaining but this section kinda points to your question.

[ols1932]

quote:Originally posted by DQDick

For those of you with solar, what do you do to take the chill off the rig on a desert morning? Presently we use a small ceramic heater and or the fireplace. I'm assuming the fireplace will draw too many amps, so what do you do? Also, do you ever cook using an electric fry pan, or is that another no no?

Small electric heater, but it depends on how much battery capacity you have. We have 510 amps of charge which will run small heater for some time; at least run it until the sun comes up.

Orv

[lunalonestar]

Dick- We have solar and do a lot of boondocking. To remove the chill we have a Mr Buddy propane heater. I run a propane hose under our residential refrigerator out through the plastic vent and tie it directly to the 30 pound propane tank. It works beautifully. We could use the furnace, but to your point, I don't want to run the batteries if I don't have to. The 1000w inverter operates the living room, kitchen and refrigerator. I could not be happier with the set up.