Oregon

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LED Lighting Experiment

Are you aware of how much power your standard 12V no. 1141 incandescent bulbs are gobbling up every night? Lighting will drain your batteries much more quickly than you would think.

The answer is about 1 1/4 amps per bulb. There are usually two bulbs to a fixture. How many fixtures do you leave on at night? If you’re anything like the average RVer I see in the parks, you have five or six fixtures on. That’s 15 to 18 amps per hour just for lighting! In my old days of boondocking reading by the light of one of these bulbs for four hours would deplete my battery (1.5 amps x 2 x 4=12 amps) when combined with running the fridge, propane detector, and keeping the furnace on all night at a low setting.

So, I’ve taken to using L.E.D. puck lights when boondocking. I haven’t stuck them anywhere, using them as flashlights. Donna gave me a 12 volt L.E.D. bulb for a light fixture, but I’ll admit to seriously disliking it since it emits a blinding blue-white light. That said, it is a power sipper. When I monitor my voltage, I see it drop by two to three points when I turn on an incandescent light fixture. There is no fluctuation when I turn on the fixture with the L.E.D. bulb.

Waiting at AM Solar with me today for work to be done on his rig was Doug, an L.E.D. lighting specialist. His site is LEDTrailerLights.com. He gave me two bulbs to try. They rather look like the Capitol Records Building in L.A. 🙂 :

I put it into a fixture in the study and was astounding to discover warm, yellowish like not unlike that of an incandescent bulb!

I tried to get a comparison shot of the other bulb, but all I got was a blinding flash of white!

Again, no voltage drop.

L.E.D. bulbs last much, more longer than incandescent bulbs. Now that I know I can make the switch with no compromise I’m going to start buying L.E.D. units as my incandescent bulbs burn out. Thanks, Doug!

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Pets are People, Too

Today was a hard day for Tabitha and Neelix. I had to ‘lock’ them in the back part of the rig all day with their food and litter. Add to that the strange noises and smells and they were on edge when I was finally able to spring them loose.

My house door doesn’t close well and it swung open without my noticing it, so I caught Neelix on the front step outside, enjoying the sun. He mewed pitifully when I called his name, but came back into the rig on his own. Even though it’s chilly out, I left the door open for about an hour with the screen door closed and put a mat by the stoop. Both cats immediately went to lie down on the cushioned surface to bask in the late day sunshine and fresh air.

I see so many people who are not considerate of their pets and it breaks my heart. If you have an animal at home, no matter what it is, please remember that it surely appreciates simple pleasures and comforts, and consideration, as much as you do.

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150 Watt Solar Panel from AM Solar

Ta-dah!

150 watt panel located in an open spot with few shadows and leaving me room to mount the kayak on the roof if I want

150 watt panel located in an open spot with few shadows and leaving me room to mount the kayak on the roof if I want

you can see the wiring going down the fridge vent

you can see the wiring going down the fridge vent

close up of the installation, lots of Dicor!

close up of the installation, lots of Dicor!

array amps in 'dry camping mode'. This is almost half of what I would get in ideal conditions and it's overcast! It's also about six times what I got from my 15 watt panel on a good day!

array amps in ‘dry camping mode’. This is almost half of what I would get in ideal conditions and it’s overcast! It’s also about six times what I got from my 15 watt panel on a good day!

array amps when in 'shore power mode'

array amps when in ‘shore power mode’

battery voltage (I'm plugged into shore power)

battery voltage (I’m plugged into shore power)

positioning on the side of the over fridge cabinet

positioning on the side of the over fridge cabinet

inside of the cabinet. The wire housing has two sets of wires, one goes left towards the front of the rig where the battery is and the other straight up to the solar panel.

inside of the cabinet. The wire housing has two sets of wires, one goes left towards the front of the rig where the battery is and the other straight up to the solar panel.

I am very satisfied by AM Solar‘s job. Their reputation is warranted! Thank you to Charlie who did the installation (and added some Dicor to other screws on the roof that needed it), and Deb and Roger in the office! It took 6.5 hours to get the panel installed, but I didn’t even see time go by thanks to the comfy waiting room with wifi. There was even coffee this morning!

My brain is a little fuzzy right now (I didn’t sleep last night), but let’s see if I can remember the gist of the important information. 🙂

First of all, the installation of the controller. AM Solar prefers to use the fridge vent over any other route and then they cut a hole in a wall and flush mount the controller. I had a very easy and even perfect set up to do this since they were able to use the side of my new overfridge cabinet for mounting instead of cutting into a wall. I’m still able to put my pantry baskets in there, so I haven’t lost any space. The solar panel is located right above the fridge so the wiring was brought straight down and then across to the batteries.

Second, they left my 15 watt panel on the roof and hooked up, but it’s not tied into the system. It gives me an extra half to one amp a day. What want to do at some point is hook it up to the truck battery when I’m parked for extended periods of time.

Third, I was advised to do a few tweaks to my battery bank, including added vented covers, which they gave me at no charge to install myself (left behinds from other customers). No major issues, just little things that would lessen worst-case scenarios!

Fourth, the HPV-22B charge controller is a nice little device. There’s an on/off switch that I don’t need to worry about unless I’m parking for an extended period of time out of the sun. There is also a dry camping/shore power mode that provides the best charging for both scenarios. I also have three LED displays: battery voltage, array amps, and charging amps. Right now, I forget the difference between the array and charging amps, but for the moment they are the same (I think array is the amperage going out and charging is the amperage coming in). Finally, I have two indicator lights. One tells me if I am charging (solid) or at full capacity (pulsing). Right now it is pulsing. There is another light that tells me if I am charging at maximum capacity.

The total was $1,600. That would have gotten me a 100 amp panel on special in Canada, including taxes, and excluding the tilt bars I can use when parked for extended periods of time. AM Solar is very good value!

The only thing my electrical system is missing now is a battery usage monitor. Voltage readings really mean very little since they vary depending on what I am using. They do not tell me how many amps I have left. Andy Baird explains this very well in Eureka.

I was warned that depending on where I spend the winter (so how much sun there is and how much I heat), I may be tight for boondocking in the colder months. The next week or so is going to be a good test!

Tonight, I am parked against the back of the building and plugged into 30A power with access to the shower room. I plan to take full advantage of it. 🙂 I was told that there is no rush for me to get out of here tomorrow, but I’ll try to do so before ten.

I have a viable solar system!!!!!

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A 180 Degree About Face

Yesterday, I spent about three hours with a friend climbing in and out of a staggering number of fifth wheels and… I fell in love.

I especially liked the bunk-model one that had two entrances, including one into the bunk area that had a door. Rip out the bunk, add a desk, and suddenly you have a separate office with an exterior access door… and there’s also a full bedroom. All within a foot print that is not much longer than Miranda.

Even the worst fiver designs were better than the best motorhome. And those kitchens… I’m still not a fan of slides, but they seem to be more useful in a fifth wheel than in a motorhome.

Suddenly, learning to hook up and back up a trailer made sense, especially when factoring in that a good used truck could come in at five to six thousand dollars and a recent-model high end 5er could be had for under forty grand. Compare that to the minimum $125,000 I’d have to spend to get a recent-model high end class C or B motorhome when it comes time to replace Miranda. And I’d only have one engine to maintain.

Is this what the “dark side” looks like?

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AM Solar At Last!

I pulled out of Eugene in light rain at about 8:10 this morning and made it to AM Solar at bang on 8:30 in time for my appointment. I was very pleased with the warm reception. We took a few minutes to go over the rig and discuss where the wiring was going to go in and the charge controller would be mounted. I also pointed out the location of the batteries and 12V disconnect switch.

The work will take all day because they are working on two rigs, but this is okay since I was offered a place to park for the night… including access to a shower. I’ve been dry camping for over a week, so a long shower is going to be appreciated tonight!

Getting ‘solarized’ has been a dream for two and a half years and I can’t believe this is happening at last!