Our old Foretravel is equipped with a Sharp Carrousel combination micro wave and convection oven. That means that all cooking done in that oven is electric. As those that have read our past notes know we installed a small solar system and a big bank of batteries complete with a 3,000 watt inverter before leaving home for our winter trip. RV Solar in Phoenix Arizona supplied the system that included 170 watts of solar panels, a Magnum 3000 charger/inverter/converter and the control panels needed to operate the system. The battery bank came out of our golf cart that was not making the trip with us.
Between October 19th, departure date from New Hampshire, and the 9th of January we logged just 2.5 hours of generator time with half of the nights spent in camp grounds and the other half spent boondocking. That adds to roughly 60 days living off batteries and solar, and we are not energy efficient people. We run the TV, satellite, two lap tops, lights, coffee pot, lights, water pump, and microwave as needed to maintain a comfortable life style.
With the old system we would have run the generator at least 2 hours a day during morning coffee time and evening meal preparation. If the night time temperatures were forecast to be low enough to run the furnaces we would probably have run the generator at least another hour to make sure that the batteries had enough power for the night. That would have been between 120 and 180 hours of generator time at $2.50 per hour.
But there is good news and bad news. Well maybe not bad news but some of what the nay sayers of solar spout is partially true. One old racer that we met Christmas day at a campground was quite adamant that solar was the worst investment that he ever made. His mantra was that you still have to recharge the batteries. Quite true, but it is like ,”do I recharge entirely with the generator, or do I let old sol up in the sky help.” The operative word is help. With enough panels you could depend completely on solar depending on your location. The southern states in the winter offer more direct solar and longer and more sunny days.
The one thing that is obvious here in the Arizona desert is that elevating the panel to get direct sun rays does help. Our panels are flat on the roof and before next winters trip I will rig a platform on the roof that will let me point the panels into the sun. From observation keeping them flat limits the output to about 50% of rated capacity. Which means that if I am happy with the performance now, just think of the results elevated.
Solar is not a cure all but half a loaf is better than non at all. And while being not being energy conscious to the point of being cold because of a low thermostat setting in rural New Hampshire, we have reduced our carbon foot print on the planet and are warm in Arizona, and with solar providing half or more of our electrical needs we feel good.
Oh, the woman assaulted by chocolate chips? Well Lucy was baking her famous chocolate chip chocolate muffins as a gift for our neighbors that helped with our billowing awning in the wind storm yesterday. As she was removing the muffins from the solar electric powered oven a hot chocolate chip fell off a muffin. It landed on the toe of her Crock, slithered down through one of the holes and burned her big toe to the point of a blister. What does this have to do with solar? Nothing, but it got your attention.