Today we left the Salton Sea to go back to a reliable boondock we wintered at last year. It's the Imperial Dam LTVA (Long Term Visitor Area) in Winterhaven, CA, right by Yuma, AZ and Algodones Mexico (where my mom got her teeth done last winter).
This is the area we want to be in with our current travel goals. We also like it because this is a place made for people who live in there RVs. For $40 we get a 2 week permit that lets us camp, dump, fill water tanks, and dispose of our trash. (You can get a season long permit for $180 which would cover Sept 15 to April 15). There's also a coin shower at the more expensive camping area on the water. It has everything we need and is quiet, peaceful, and safe. We stayed in this area all winter last year. I'm sure we'll do it again in the future.
We came here because this is where we got our solar installed for the new motorhome. As you know, we blew our inverter and I couldn't install the new one because we upgraded to a 2,000 watt inverter and the leads on our wires won't fit. We also think we have a battery problem because we get more life from our engine battery than from our six battery bank. As soon as the sun goes down the auxiliary batteries read empty.
This may be because we damaged them by draining them to empty, but we followed the instructions originally given to us by the solar place to the T. We never let our charge control display drop lower than 12.1.
Anyway...
The solar place is on vacation, but the workers live in RVs surrounding it so one of them greeted us and explained they'd take care of us Friday after the holiday. In the meantime they let us set up camp on their lot and gave us an electrical hook-up. This is the solar place by the Christian Service Center. I can't recommend them enough. They have done great work for us and always treat us fantastic.
We are loving this because we've been limping along on a 410 watt cigarette lighter inverter for the last couple of weeks. It doesn't allow us to watch TV and use the computers at the same time. Every time we disconnect the TV and satellite receiver we have to go through a long riggamaroll to get it started again. It takes about 10 minutes for the satellite to finish its tests and find a signal every time we want to watch TV. It's been a pain in the butt.
We're settled in with power once again. We bought a 2 week permit, since there is no shorter option so we'll be here until December 5th. We dumped, got rid of trash, and took on water. It's nice to be back in familiar territory. :)
Showing posts with label Solar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Solar. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Friday, April 1, 2016
Rice Cooker Destroyed Our World
You read that right. Rice cooker. It screwed stuff up.
Let me backtrack and tell you about when we used to boondock with our old travel trailer. I distinctly remember my mother using our coffee maker with our 1,000 watt inverter, four 12 volt battery bank, and 260 watt solar array. THE COFFEE MAKER WORKED. It wasn't a dream. I know it worked.
But no longer. We have an even beefier system now and we can't run coffee makers, slow cookers, toasters...or rice cookers.
We got rid of the coffee maker when it set off an alarm on my 600 watt inverter. I was okay with this because this was a smaller capacity inverter than what I had before. We switched to boiling water for instant coffee. I think instant coffee is fine, but my mom, the coffee snob (it's her Puerto Rican blood) insists we keep our coffee maker to use when we're on shore power. The toaster also wouldn't push down without the inverter beeping. So I got it. Those two appliances got stowed away.
Then we hooked the TV, satellite receiver, satellite, two computers, two phones a'charging, our cordless headphone charger, and two fans on the 600 watt inverter.
I'll be danged if it didn't stop working! IMAGINE THAT?!
Turning it off and on again didn't help. That was the extent of my problem-solving skills. We shut everything down and just ran our laptops off our 300 watt inverter. I ordered the inverter below from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/PowerTech-ON-Technology-Protection-Sockets-PS1002/dp/B0131L8NLM
Okay, so we went from modified sine to pure sine, and 600 watts to 1000 watts. Good to go, right?
Well, yes. For a while all was fine. I figured we now had the ability to run small appliances again since we had with our last 1000 watt inverter. Out comes the rice cooker.
EVERYTHING DIES.
The moment I hook it in not only does the inverter stop working, all the lights in the coach go out.
CRAP.
The lights come back on on their own, but the inverter won't come back on when I turn it on and off. I'm not willing to lose another inverter, so I opened it up and tried to change fuses. The 40 amp fuses inside looked fine and wouldn't come out anyway. -_- I stopped trying and opened up my old 600 watt inverter. There were four 20 amp fuses in here and they came out easily. They were all fried. I replaced them. Then I hooked the 600 watt inverter to the battery leads.
It didn't work.
So now the only inverter I have (meaning the only way I can run my plug in stuff) is my small 300 watt one. I put it in the cigarette lighter and it's working fine. I use it there for a while doing my computer stuff. Then I moved it over to the battery leads and attached it.
It didn't work.
So now I knew it might not be my inverters. Something got fried with the batteries.
The fuse!
This time when my batteries were installed the guys also installed a 30 amp fuse. I went under the RV and dug it out of it's housing. It's one of those big maxi fuses, and yes, it was fried.
HOORAY!! Maybe my new inverter isn't broken after all!
The next day my mom walks to the solar place (we're boondocking nearby it) and gets me a new 30 amp fuse. I replace it and neither inverter will work. x_x
So I carried my inverters over to the solar place. The 1000 watt one isn't broken but the 600 watt is. I don't know what's wrong with that 600 watt. :/ But that's neither here nor there. My 1000 amp is working but won't work on my battery leads.
We drive the RV back to the solar place. It's decided that in addition to fixing whatever the heck is wrong with my battery wires I need to upgrade my system. We add another 160 watt panel and two more 6 volt batteries. This brings me to 480 watts of solar panels and 6 fricking batteries!
The guys put in an 80 amp fuse. It's huge. The only way I'm going to fry it is if we're struck by lightning. They know me well...
I left them the 600 watt inverter because damned if I know how to fix it and I was just going to throw it away. I still have the 300 watt one, but it seems to have stopped working. :/ We're relying strictly on that 1,000 watt pictured up there. I think we'll be fine with it.
By the way...Today marks our 1 year anniversary as full time Rvers! WOW!
Let me backtrack and tell you about when we used to boondock with our old travel trailer. I distinctly remember my mother using our coffee maker with our 1,000 watt inverter, four 12 volt battery bank, and 260 watt solar array. THE COFFEE MAKER WORKED. It wasn't a dream. I know it worked.
But no longer. We have an even beefier system now and we can't run coffee makers, slow cookers, toasters...or rice cookers.
We got rid of the coffee maker when it set off an alarm on my 600 watt inverter. I was okay with this because this was a smaller capacity inverter than what I had before. We switched to boiling water for instant coffee. I think instant coffee is fine, but my mom, the coffee snob (it's her Puerto Rican blood) insists we keep our coffee maker to use when we're on shore power. The toaster also wouldn't push down without the inverter beeping. So I got it. Those two appliances got stowed away.
Then we hooked the TV, satellite receiver, satellite, two computers, two phones a'charging, our cordless headphone charger, and two fans on the 600 watt inverter.
I'll be danged if it didn't stop working! IMAGINE THAT?!
Turning it off and on again didn't help. That was the extent of my problem-solving skills. We shut everything down and just ran our laptops off our 300 watt inverter. I ordered the inverter below from Amazon:
Okay, so we went from modified sine to pure sine, and 600 watts to 1000 watts. Good to go, right?
Well, yes. For a while all was fine. I figured we now had the ability to run small appliances again since we had with our last 1000 watt inverter. Out comes the rice cooker.
EVERYTHING DIES.
The moment I hook it in not only does the inverter stop working, all the lights in the coach go out.
CRAP.
The lights come back on on their own, but the inverter won't come back on when I turn it on and off. I'm not willing to lose another inverter, so I opened it up and tried to change fuses. The 40 amp fuses inside looked fine and wouldn't come out anyway. -_- I stopped trying and opened up my old 600 watt inverter. There were four 20 amp fuses in here and they came out easily. They were all fried. I replaced them. Then I hooked the 600 watt inverter to the battery leads.
It didn't work.
So now the only inverter I have (meaning the only way I can run my plug in stuff) is my small 300 watt one. I put it in the cigarette lighter and it's working fine. I use it there for a while doing my computer stuff. Then I moved it over to the battery leads and attached it.
It didn't work.
So now I knew it might not be my inverters. Something got fried with the batteries.
The fuse!
This time when my batteries were installed the guys also installed a 30 amp fuse. I went under the RV and dug it out of it's housing. It's one of those big maxi fuses, and yes, it was fried.
HOORAY!! Maybe my new inverter isn't broken after all!
The next day my mom walks to the solar place (we're boondocking nearby it) and gets me a new 30 amp fuse. I replace it and neither inverter will work. x_x
So I carried my inverters over to the solar place. The 1000 watt one isn't broken but the 600 watt is. I don't know what's wrong with that 600 watt. :/ But that's neither here nor there. My 1000 amp is working but won't work on my battery leads.
We drive the RV back to the solar place. It's decided that in addition to fixing whatever the heck is wrong with my battery wires I need to upgrade my system. We add another 160 watt panel and two more 6 volt batteries. This brings me to 480 watts of solar panels and 6 fricking batteries!
The guys put in an 80 amp fuse. It's huge. The only way I'm going to fry it is if we're struck by lightning. They know me well...
I left them the 600 watt inverter because damned if I know how to fix it and I was just going to throw it away. I still have the 300 watt one, but it seems to have stopped working. :/ We're relying strictly on that 1,000 watt pictured up there. I think we'll be fine with it.
By the way...Today marks our 1 year anniversary as full time Rvers! WOW!
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Solar for our 31' Trailer With Costs
Today the guy from Four Seasons RV (in Pahrump, NV) worked all day getting my solar set-up installed. Unfortunately it started raining hardcore at 4pm, so he had to quit early. My RV is parked in a place that turns into sludge when it rains. He just couldn't keep going, but he will finish tomorrow.
Here's a cost break down of the entire price of my solar set-up. I AM CHEAP, and I think I did well. I've linked to anything I bought through Amazon. Everything else was from the W store. I added shipping costs to the price for anything that I didn't get through Amazon Prime
(which you should totally sign up for using my affiliate link right there).
I get worried when I see how much more other people paid for a lot of stuff. I think some RVers are using solar electricity businesses or RV Superstore places to get and install stuff. I did it the cheapie way I do everything. Hopefully it doesn't bite me in the butt. The guy who was doing the installation approved everything I bought, so fingers crossed!
He had to use a spindle's worth of additional cable ($75, included in his labor price) and put copper connectors on the batteries. (The black and red cable spindles are behind the ladder there).
Those copper connecters at the end of the red and black cables were provided by the guy I hired. I have a FOUR battery bank. These three are also connected to the house battery which lives outside the RV on the hitch. They are all 12 Volt.
The batteries will live in the RV basement. He didn't vent the tub yet, but it's necessary to vent the battery fumes to the outside. He will be drilling a hole in the tub, putting my hose in it, and putting the vent end of the house through another hole drilled to the outside. This will keep the inside of the RV from getting damaged by battery acid fumes.
The tub was the right size to fit all three batteries *and* fit inside the basement. It is a Sterlight 90 Quart 13.4"L x 19.1"W x 30.0"H.
These were cheap and easy. Reviews said that they stay on forever...but my guy seemed a little dubious. He said he could peel them off to reposition them. I'm concerned. I may have to consider a roof-safe adhesive (he said there was one product safe for rubber roofs, Dicor or something).
Pictured below is my inverter. As I said in the previous post, the only way we can use AC power (for stuff you plug in) is with an inverter. The outlets in the RV will not work while we're dry camping. Only DC power stuff, like the lights, will work without an inverter.
The inverter will live in our RV basement, but a power strip will be fed up into my mother's RV bedroom area inside. Everything we need to plug in while dry camping will have to be off that power strip. We'll be bringing extension cords!
Our inverter came with a remote control which will be mounted inside my mother's bedroom also. This way we can turn it off and on without having to go into the RV basement.
I won't be testing out this set-up for several weeks. If I find problems I will post them in this blog under the solar label. Be sure to follow and check back!
I had most of the materials, but he had to provide additional cable, connectors, and screws to mount stuff.
Here's a cost break down of the entire price of my solar set-up. I AM CHEAP, and I think I did well. I've linked to anything I bought through Amazon. Everything else was from the W store. I added shipping costs to the price for anything that I didn't get through Amazon Prime
(which you should totally sign up for using my affiliate link right there).| Three 29DC 12V Batteries w/Cores @$98.83/ea | $269.49 |
| Battery Storage Box (It was a clear plastic tub w/lid) | $11.97 |
| A vent hose to vent fumes out of the battery box | $22.70 |
| Renogy 30 Amp PWM Charge Controller | $29.99 |
| Two Unisolar 128 Watt Flexible Solar Panel @$139/ea | $278.00 |
| Extra Cable (wasn't enough) | $26.78 |
| Sunforce 11240 1000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter | $167.49 |
| A Days Worth of Labor from Mobile RV Service | $650.00 |
| $1,456.42 |
For a 256 Watt system I'd say we did pretty good.
I get worried when I see how much more other people paid for a lot of stuff. I think some RVers are using solar electricity businesses or RV Superstore places to get and install stuff. I did it the cheapie way I do everything. Hopefully it doesn't bite me in the butt. The guy who was doing the installation approved everything I bought, so fingers crossed!
He had to use a spindle's worth of additional cable ($75, included in his labor price) and put copper connectors on the batteries. (The black and red cable spindles are behind the ladder there).
He recommended I get 31DC batteries but the W store only went up to 29DC. He said that was fine.
Those copper connecters at the end of the red and black cables were provided by the guy I hired. I have a FOUR battery bank. These three are also connected to the house battery which lives outside the RV on the hitch. They are all 12 Volt.
The batteries will live in the RV basement. He didn't vent the tub yet, but it's necessary to vent the battery fumes to the outside. He will be drilling a hole in the tub, putting my hose in it, and putting the vent end of the house through another hole drilled to the outside. This will keep the inside of the RV from getting damaged by battery acid fumes.
The tub was the right size to fit all three batteries *and* fit inside the basement. It is a Sterlight 90 Quart 13.4"L x 19.1"W x 30.0"H.
By using stick-on solar panels I avoided causing any damage to the roof.
These were cheap and easy. Reviews said that they stay on forever...but my guy seemed a little dubious. He said he could peel them off to reposition them. I'm concerned. I may have to consider a roof-safe adhesive (he said there was one product safe for rubber roofs, Dicor or something).
Pictured below is my inverter. As I said in the previous post, the only way we can use AC power (for stuff you plug in) is with an inverter. The outlets in the RV will not work while we're dry camping. Only DC power stuff, like the lights, will work without an inverter.
To use our laptops, TV, and wifi hotspot we're going to need to plug the stuff directly into the inverter.
The inverter will live in our RV basement, but a power strip will be fed up into my mother's RV bedroom area inside. Everything we need to plug in while dry camping will have to be off that power strip. We'll be bringing extension cords!
Our inverter came with a remote control which will be mounted inside my mother's bedroom also. This way we can turn it off and on without having to go into the RV basement.
I won't be testing out this set-up for several weeks. If I find problems I will post them in this blog under the solar label. Be sure to follow and check back!
Thursday, March 5, 2015
Things are Humming Along!
Today I went to the store that shall not be named (starts with W) and purchased three huge batteries and a nice plastic tub to house them.
These are easily 75 pounds a piece. The guy from Four Seasons RV said to get 31AH or higher. The highest the W store had was 29AH. I understand that the higher you go the bigger the battery. I'm barely going to fit these three in the RV basement.
We got a call from the real estate agent asking if she could bring the buyers by to see the house. What? Didn't they already see it? Weren't they the people who came last week?
I was glad to meet the nice retired couple who are buying our house. They really seemed to like it. We've had a sale fall through in the past which made me nervous the second time around. I really think this sale is going to go through. They were very determined to get our house! We're selling it furnished and they liked our furniture, especially my mother's adjustable bed! This is going to make it easy from them to move here from up North.
I make a very decent income, but it can fluctuate wildly. I don't have the security of a predictable pay check. Part of being able to do what I love full-time means I need to live very frugally. Two years ago we bought the house we live in for $32,700.
Because it was a hoarder house with walls caved in, knee-high piles of trash, and a stench that would kill a house plant. We filled a 16-wheeler with the trash we had to haul out of this place. I spent a month cleaning and renovating before we were able to move in. We put in new floors, new toilets, ceiling fans, new walls, new roof, new appliances, new central air, new vents--on and on!! We made this house beautiful. And now we're selling it for $70,000.
Yes, that's still very cheap. It's a 20 year old manufactured home, but I still think it's wonderful now. The new owners should be very happy with it. It has an acre of land surrounded by a nice chain link fence. :)
Beside the house in this picture is our old KZ Sportsman. My mom said it was too small to live full time in. I tried to convince her otherwise, but I want her to be happy. We got our much bigger Forest River now. I know for sure we'll live happily in there! It's huge and so nice. Even if we decide we don't want to travel any more we can park it somewhere and still live in it very happily.
These are easily 75 pounds a piece. The guy from Four Seasons RV said to get 31AH or higher. The highest the W store had was 29AH. I understand that the higher you go the bigger the battery. I'm barely going to fit these three in the RV basement.
These hopefully will be good enough!
The plastic tub I got will fit all three batteries and will fit in the RV basement (yay!). So with the vent thing I bought in the last post we should have a good house for them with a vent that will get the battery acid fumes out of the storage area. Some holes will have to be drilled for the vent and the wires. I'll leave that to the professional.
Sultan felt a cute cat picture was necessary at this point, so here he is!
We've been trying to sell our house since January. We got an great offer Monday and signed off on it! We (the mother and I) were so relieved that we would be done with house showings.
BUT THEN...
We got a call from the real estate agent asking if she could bring the buyers by to see the house. What? Didn't they already see it? Weren't they the people who came last week?
Apparently the people who are buying our house bought it sight unseen!
Things have been crazy with the housing market in Pahrump Nevada for the last two weeks. We used to be lucky to have a showing every two weeks or so. Then suddenly we were getting two showings a week! On Monday we had two offers! We signed off on this one before the other was presented to us. It was a good offer, but we would have been happy with the other offer too. House sales just picked up like crazy lately!
I was glad to meet the nice retired couple who are buying our house. They really seemed to like it. We've had a sale fall through in the past which made me nervous the second time around. I really think this sale is going to go through. They were very determined to get our house! We're selling it furnished and they liked our furniture, especially my mother's adjustable bed! This is going to make it easy from them to move here from up North.
As you know I'm a novelist...
I make a very decent income, but it can fluctuate wildly. I don't have the security of a predictable pay check. Part of being able to do what I love full-time means I need to live very frugally. Two years ago we bought the house we live in for $32,700.
Yes--it was that cheap!
Because it was a hoarder house with walls caved in, knee-high piles of trash, and a stench that would kill a house plant. We filled a 16-wheeler with the trash we had to haul out of this place. I spent a month cleaning and renovating before we were able to move in. We put in new floors, new toilets, ceiling fans, new walls, new roof, new appliances, new central air, new vents--on and on!! We made this house beautiful. And now we're selling it for $70,000.
Yes, that's still very cheap. It's a 20 year old manufactured home, but I still think it's wonderful now. The new owners should be very happy with it. It has an acre of land surrounded by a nice chain link fence. :)
Beside the house in this picture is our old KZ Sportsman. My mom said it was too small to live full time in. I tried to convince her otherwise, but I want her to be happy. We got our much bigger Forest River now. I know for sure we'll live happily in there! It's huge and so nice. Even if we decide we don't want to travel any more we can park it somewhere and still live in it very happily.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Solar Set-up On Hold
Today a man from Four Seasons Mobile RV Service came out to get things going on our solar set-up. I thought he'd be doing all the work today, but I'm short some equipment.
A $30 Charge Controller
Two of these 128 Watt stick on solar panels. They're 18 feet long!!
And a bit of extra cable.
I'm pretty ignorant about all of this. I knew I needed to get my batteries still but I also needed an inverter. I thought the RV already had one, but it has a 'converter'. It's not going to work with the solar set up. If I want to be able to plug things in while dry camping, such as my wi-fi hotspot and laptops, I need an inverter.
I really thought that with solar panels I was going to be able to use the outlets in the RV. Not so. For stuff I need to plug in I have to plug them into the outlets on the inverter. The only time the RV outlets will work is when I'm hooked to shore power. There's a remedy for this, but it's thousands of dollars! Forget that! All I need to plug in when I'm dry camping are the laptops and the hotspot. We'll get by.
I'm going to have a four battery bank. One battery is my house battery, which is fastened to the hitch in the front of the RV. The other three batteries will go in the 'basement.' This is the pass-through storage just behind the hitch. I figured I didn't need battery boxes since they were inside.
Well, I was wrong about this also. The batteries will vent acid fumes that could damage the storage area. I need a container for them, and a way to vent the fumes to the outside.
Now I need to go to a store and get a shallow plastic tub with a lid to house the three interior batteries. My solar guy will drill a hole in it for the vent hose pictured above, and then drill another hole in the RV so that the vent goes outside.
The house battery is a nice maintenance free one, but he said any 12 volt battery would be fine in a 31 class or higher. I'm going to get cheapie marine batteries because this is starting to get expensive.
My guy will be back on Monday to do the actual installation. Hopefully I'll have everything I need by then. I'll post an update with more pictures!
Here's what I have:
A $30 Charge Controller
Two of these 128 Watt stick on solar panels. They're 18 feet long!!
And a bit of extra cable.
I'm pretty ignorant about all of this. I knew I needed to get my batteries still but I also needed an inverter. I thought the RV already had one, but it has a 'converter'. It's not going to work with the solar set up. If I want to be able to plug things in while dry camping, such as my wi-fi hotspot and laptops, I need an inverter.
I really thought that with solar panels I was going to be able to use the outlets in the RV. Not so. For stuff I need to plug in I have to plug them into the outlets on the inverter. The only time the RV outlets will work is when I'm hooked to shore power. There's a remedy for this, but it's thousands of dollars! Forget that! All I need to plug in when I'm dry camping are the laptops and the hotspot. We'll get by.
Here's what I ordered:
I'm going to have a four battery bank. One battery is my house battery, which is fastened to the hitch in the front of the RV. The other three batteries will go in the 'basement.' This is the pass-through storage just behind the hitch. I figured I didn't need battery boxes since they were inside.
Well, I was wrong about this also. The batteries will vent acid fumes that could damage the storage area. I need a container for them, and a way to vent the fumes to the outside.
I bought this thing so far:
Now I need to go to a store and get a shallow plastic tub with a lid to house the three interior batteries. My solar guy will drill a hole in it for the vent hose pictured above, and then drill another hole in the RV so that the vent goes outside.
Oh, yeah, and I also need to get my batteries!
The house battery is a nice maintenance free one, but he said any 12 volt battery would be fine in a 31 class or higher. I'm going to get cheapie marine batteries because this is starting to get expensive.
My guy will be back on Monday to do the actual installation. Hopefully I'll have everything I need by then. I'll post an update with more pictures!
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