solar power

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

NorCalDoug said:
Check West Marine's website -- www.westmarine.com.

Lots of marine applications use either a small solar cell or a gadget that monitors battery life/drain and shuts off battery power if it reaches a certain level, so that you have enough juice to start the engine.
Click to expand...

I use a DIY low voltage disconnect on my auxillary battery. It works great. The auxillary loads, ARB, etc. run thought the little soild state box. If the battery voltage drops to 10.5 it opens the switch and kills the loads. I figure this saves the battery but others use it on the primary battery to save enough juice for a start.

Plug in your soldering iron:
http://www.homepower.com/files/lvdhp60.pdf
:beer:
 
propane fridge. no battery worries.
Seriously, we *had* an ARB fridge and loved it, it was fantastic. Except that after four days in the baja sun our 2nd battery was F L A T. And I was sure to run the truck for about 20 minutes/day thinking that would help.... heck, one day I actually drove for nearly an hour round trip to get more beer. That helped, but the net draw was still too much for the 2nd battery (110 degree heat means lots of fridgin). For the cost of fuel to run the alternator to run the fridge, I could have bought two blocks of ice, which would have done a BETTER job of cooling down those hot coronas, and certainly works better for an evening mixed drink. We looked into panels.... and decided that for the 300-400 dollars it was going to cost to get enough solar juice to significantly offset the fridge consumption, we could instead buy a few hundred pounds of propane... more than enough to last us several years of camping. And, unlike solar panels, you can also use the propane to make heat to make coffee (mmmm, coffeeee).
So, in my experience, if you plan to be parked for more than a day at a time, I prefer a 3way fridge (12, 120, propane). If you are going to be on the move more than parked (like on the Rubicon, or some other trail, for instance) then the ARB/Norcold type fridges are a great idea as you alternator will be sufficient to keep the battery(ies) charged up for your trip. You can get small (about 1' x 1') solar panels that put out a little bit of juice and might help keep the battery from draining too quickly.... but you'll quickly run up some expensive gadgetry that really, really wants to fail- leaving you with warm beer.
On short trips (weekend) I think I would just as soon just use a block of ice in a cooler. Maybe freeze a water bottle or two as well. Simple. Cheap. Nearly impossible to break or fail. But lacks greatly in cool factor, I know.
One thing I haven't tried, but I bet would work great is some frozen stuff in the ARB.... seems like it would help reduce the draw dramatically.
I don't know if Exiled has posted his extensive knowledge on keeping ice icy... if you search birfield's archives for " expedition, ice, cubillan" you'll likely find a record of it. He's elevated keeping cold to an art (former fishing offroad guide, if I recall).
 
pismojim said:
I use a DIY low voltage disconnect on my auxillary battery. It works great. The auxillary loads, ARB, etc. run thought the little soild state box. If the battery voltage drops to 10.5 it opens the switch and kills the loads. I figure this saves the battery but others use it on the primary battery to save enough juice for a start.

Plug in your soldering iron:
http://www.homepower.com/files/lvdhp60.pdf
:beer:
Click to expand...

JIM! :D
Not a bad idea for the aux.



[thread hijack] Did you ever write up your water heater installation? If so, is it on realcruiser.com? [/thread hijack]
 
But could it power a block heater?????????

An off switch for when your driving.


How much power do they need. It could be a convenient way of doing it if it would give enough energy (atleast when the sun is out)
 
Okay, I saw a Tundra crew cab here in Bend today with a High top canopy on the bed and a rack over the cab. On the cab rack he has a big ole solar panel mounted at a rackish angle like a wind deflector, going from the front of the cab/rack back and up to the top of the bed canopy which was about a foot higher than the cab. The tundra had a arb front bumpwr with winch, nice wheels and tires, skidders on the rockers. Good looking rig.

This is a smallish town, I'll keep my eye peeled for him, try to track him down and see what's up with the panel. Will get photos if possible. could be in town for skiing so might miss him if he clears out.
 
Steve, What do you do when you run out of propane before you run out of beer? :)

I use the [very important] smallest ARB freezer fridge [/very important] and lived out of the wagon for two months. Might as well been indefinitiely. No problemo. Easy one week between re-supplies. Ran the ARB in freezer mode, used a small cooler for the "fridge". The routine was something like this: Morning -when "room temperture" is coolest put room temp stuff in freezer, move frozen meat for evening dinner into cooler (fridge) to keep days drinks cold. Swap "blue ice" from cooler into freezer. Big party that night? put a few warm beers into freezer for an hour. Yeah we were driving pretty much everyday.

But, we did park for up to three days, without starting the engine. Ususally, didn't open the little ARB but once a day. No problem and didn't trip the low voltage disconnect. (I've also parked for 2-3 days at Rubithon warm summer Sierras without problem.) The small 31qt(?) ARB saves lots of amps, my friends with the bigger ARBs have dead batteries. Still, it ain't Puerto Rico.

Doug, I haven't got around to writing up the water heater. Heck, haven't fully unpacked from Rubithon and haven't put gas into the cruiser since Surf n Turf. Work sucks but it will end - I'll see if I can borrow Henry's Exiled handle. Finally, it seems appropriate to note that adding a hot water shower means the batteries stay charged for the fridge. ;)

Back to Steve, as I'm sure you know, it's really all about minimalizing(?). I've dropped the beer for 100% blue agave. Some ice for the first mug is nice, then its straight up, room temperature, until sunrise. Works for me.:cool:

Still reading? Just to show you I'm not a total thread hijacker check out this thread (pay attention to Joaquin Sauve):

Excellent S O L A R P O W E R thread

Joaquin drives the Big Blue Expedition (Baja ready solar/propane/tequila powered) Truck (Casa Azul) as seen at Surf N Turf.
 
ok- I'll grant that switching to a less fridge-intensive beverage *will* help....
but the propane-powered version lasts literally months off of a 2.5lb bottle. Using ours for the fridge and for cooking, we only ran through maybe 4 bottles of propane in the 9 months we were on the road. And at least once we could have waited a few more days before refilling, but weren't sure where we might find propane again.
In 12v mode, it works pretty well. If I were using it long-term again, I'd add in a small muffin-fan to help the cooling stage of the fridge for both propane and 12v operation... I think it would help.
But I'll stand by the notion that for long-term camping, propane beats 12v. For a mostly-driving trip, a 12v ARB/Norcold is better.
For a weekend trip- buy some ice, get a coleman cooler. Spend the $500 saved on .... all sorts of things. :)
 
I have installed a couple on off road fire trucks, I think you can pick them up from some of the companies that make remote automated weather stations(RAWS). They're pretty small 6inx6in and have a small transformer with them.
 
Sandcruiser

What model propane fridge did you use? The coleman 3 way one with wheels?

Just curious

Jack

p.s. Stormy NW up here in Nor Cal, hope you get some groundswell....later - off to Ireland next week for work. Mmmm noting like a good pub in Dublin. Did someone say kebab and curry chips?
 
I did just this in my Landrover except it was for charging the portable battery pack.

You have to consider this. 1. You cannot leave them hooked up to your electrical system when the vehicle is running. 2. Even a fairly large one at 12"x36" only puts out at max 15watts so your average block heater (can't remember if they're 80watt or 300watt) will need quite a few. 3. The small ones don't put out enough current to do more than trickle charge so you would need at least a 5watt unit and lots of sunshine to actually "charge" a dead battery and even that at less than .5A would take a LONG time to charge.

It's a cool thing to have, I'm trying to decide now if I want to build up a 9sq foot solar grid or use a small generator for camping.

Solar is nice and clean, been around for twenty odd years and is getting smaller. Initial outlay is high but even the orig solar panels are still working.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Back
Top Bottom