solar generator

[livinthegoodlife]

Has anyone here heard of a Forty2 Solar Generator?  They are quite pricey, but very light compared to a regular gas generator.  Just saw this in a magazine for RVer's and thought it was kind of interesting.   peppermintenergy.com  for more information.  Thanks!!

[pinstriper]

It's a 180 watt solar collector, with a (not particularly large) battery built-in. So, neat enough.

Looks like it only puts out AC, via the integrated inverter.

So, if you were going to use it to plug AC appliances in, instead of plugging into the AC outlets in your trailer, you could do that.

When we bought our trailer, the dealer was including a 65 watt solar briefcase. No battery, no inverter, prolly like a $300-350 value. But, you connect it directly to your DC at the battery. So you charge the battery system directly, and use all your DC appliances, and your onboard inverter drives the AC outlets as well. We have never taken it along with us, much less used it. But to provide some level of battery recharge on an extended boondock, yeah it's something, I guess. It was free.

NEITHER is going to allow you to run the microwave or air conditioner. The one we got will probably do about as good or better job of recharging the trailer batteries because you don't have to lose the inefficiency of the inverter driving AC into the trailer and have its converter go back to DC to charge the battery.

Finally, I object to calling it a "generator", since it only works during the daylight, and of course you need full sun to get the full charge.

[daplumbr]

^^What Pinstriper said; good analysis. To put the power in perspective, the least expensive Forty2 can put out only a fraction of the power of the smallest Honda EU gas generators and it could do so for only a few minutes before depleting the battery. Then it would take hours of full sun to recharge. It may be useful in some applications for short term very light duty, but in no way is comparable to gas for power. Finally, I don't see the weight savings.  I think it weighs in at 70lbs and is a fairly large case. Both the Honda 1000 and 2000 are as light or lighter.

[tinkeringtechie]

It has a lot of features that aren't necessary for RV usage. You already have a battery, so the battery in the Forty2 is redundant. It also contains an inverter, which could easily be installed in your camplite (or plugged into the cigarette adapters). Finally, it's ridiculously expensive for the amount of power that it generates. You could buy a 100 watt solar charging kit for $185 (or 200W for $309). Both are a fraction of the price and a fraction of the weight.

[livinthegoodlife]

Thanks everyone...It was an interesting idea, but think we will stick with the Honda gas.  Just getting itchy to get out there and camp.

[mitch]

Just a late note to add, you really can create a solar power charging system for your existing battery with very very minor difficulty.  Basically you only need 2 parts and some wire. Everything you would need is available on Amazon for a couple hundred dollars.  I like to encourage solar mostly because I hate the noise of generators but truly, its easier then having to worry about gas and generator mess.  If you'd like I'd be happy to suggest specific things you would need to buy and offer help on how to put it all together.  Like I said it's very easy.  
 

[livinthegoodlife]

Mitch,
Thanks so much for offering to help! We were thinking about trying the solar power, but have yet to investigate it.  We used to do a lot of boondocking when our kids were little but never used solar power.  We do find that the boondocking sites are much more quiet and more private. We often go to National Forest and National Parks where there are no amenities such as electric. We much prefer these over some of the state parks. We have a 2014 16TBS. If you could suggest the things that we would need to buy, we could take a look at them and maybe even go ahead and purchase them. Thanks again!!

[daplumbr]

It will be fun to see where you head with solar (someday?). I'm sure Mitch has some real-world advice for specific, simple applications that will help a lot. Using the search term "solar" on this forum yields 8 pages of threads, so others are interested too! To get a set up that's usable for you, you may want to figure out roughly how much electricity you need before recharging and whether you want to mount panels on the LL or have portable panels. That will have lot to say about number/type of panels and number/type of batteries. As Mitch noted, you really only need a couple things to get started. You may also want to take other look at Charliem's thread on using the TV to charge the LL batteries, since that's a viable option to avoid needing a humungous solar system just to cover worst cast needs.

I've found the information and equipment at Arizona Wind and Sun to be very useful and high quality. They have pre-designed kits for RVs, but these assume you want to permanently mount the panels: http://www.solar-electric.com/solar-panels-mounts-kits-accessories/prsy/rvandsmbasoc.html

. They also have good information on how to roughly consider sizing a system, complete with a spreadsheet calculator at: http://www.solar-electric.com/solar/calc/. In the end, only you know how much you're willing to be careful with power usage. Fortunately, in most cases, solar systems are scalable, so you can start small and see how it goes.

After the warranty on my 16TBS is over, I plan to pretty much completely re-vamp the electrical system just for the fun of it and will base it on solar power running the show. I really enjoy my off-the-grid cabin on solar electric power; the result of one of those "practical hobbies".

[mitch]

So here's what works for me and the why's and hows of the setup, if you're only interested in the actual parts to use skip all the talk and go straight to the links below.

First I've only ever boondocked so my outlook is guided by the thought that I have to be self-sufficient. Second, I don't like to park right out in the sun because the camper heats up a lot so I knew I would need a solar panel I could move around a little.   Finally I didn't want to modify the camper structure (no holes or brackets) but I also didn't want to have to lug around and set up to much extra equipment.  

Based on some math and my actual experience I know that my 13QBB with the 5 cf refrigerator on propane, the hot water heater on propane and normal usage of all of the "stuff" (I don't have a TV and I replaced the incandescent light bulbs with LEDs) uses about 19 AHrs per day of battery power probably a little less.  My camper battery is 85 AHrs capacity but the rule of thumb is try to not draw it below 50% charge so that gives me 42.5 usable AHrs so the math (I like math, can you tell?) says I can go 2.2 days before I'm in the dark or more importantly until the beer starts to get warm.

With all this information you can start putting together a system, there are only 3 components: the panel, the charge controller and some wire.  Everything else is gravy, meaning it might be nice but you don't need it for the system to work.

 Panel size is pretty much dependent on how much sunlight you think you'll get and how much power you think you need.  I assumed a very conservative 5 hours a day of sun and the 19 AHrs based on my usage.  Panels are sized in Watts and without getting technical about it higher watts means more Ahrs of charge in a shorter period of sunlight.  A 50 watt panel will generate 14.2 Ahrs in 5 hours of sun.  Not enough for my needs, a 70 watt panel will give me almost 20 Ahrs in that same 5 hours of sun and that would be enough so that's the size panel I got.   

I wanted a charge controller from a reputable company so I went with Morningstar. Charge controllers are sized in Amps, the higher the wattage of the panel the more amps it will put out so the controller has to be able to handle slightly more amps then the panel will deliver. A 70 watt panel only puts out 4 amps so a 10 amp controller is plenty.

To get the most out of the panel you need wire that allows the current to flow easily.  I went with 25 feet of 10 gauge flexible wire because I hate fighting to coil up wire for travel.  I just want to be able to use the stuff and put it away easily. The wire that comes for pre-configured for solar setups is not very flexible and a pain in the butt. Because of this I had to add the proper connectors on the panel end of the wire (The panel itself already has connectors on it) but that's not very hard. The only other things you need are an inline fuse, I used 10 amp automotive, and a couple alligator type clips to hook the wire from the charge controller up to the battery

That's it for equipment, in a nutshell here's the configuration.  There are 2 wires coming out of the panel that connect to two 20 foot wires that plug directly into the charge controller.  There are two 5 foot wires that come out of the charge controller that connect to the battery via clips.  There is an inline 10 amp fuse spliced into the positive wire between the charge controller and battery.  That's it, done. You may want a little water tight box for the charge controller to sit in near the battery, you could even use a cheap fishing tackle box and just drill a few holes in it for the wires.  You may want to build some sort of tripod to prop up the panel so you can maximize the way the sun hits it. You can get very fancy or you can stay really simple but that's all gravy.  No matter what you do you really only need the panel, the controller and some wire. On to the actual parts, this is what I would buy today if I were going to start over again.

[a href="http://smile.amazon.com/RENOGY-Monocrystalline-Photovoltaic-Battery-Charging/dp/B009Z6CW7O/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1421812008&sr=8-3&keywords=renogy+solar+panel"]This panel[/a]

[a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Morningstar-SunSaver-SS-10-12v-Charge-Controller/dp/B002MQW3H8/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421812101&sr=8-2&keywords=morningstar+charge+controller"]This controller

[/a][a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Cord-10-Gauge-Conductor-SOOW/dp/B003FOBLHY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1421812299&sr=8-2&keywords=wire+cord+10+gauge+4+conductor"]This wire[/a]  (you'll only use 2 of the 4 wires)

[a href="http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A8TRKJW/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1"]These connectors[/a]  (you'll only use 2)

[a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Attwood-In-Line-Holder-ATO-ATC-Gauge/dp/B003EEX5XS/ref=sr_1_cc_2?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1421812441&sr=1-2-catcorr&keywords=10+amp+inline+fuse"]This in-line fuse[/a]

[a href="http://smile.amazon.com/Shoreline-Marine-Battery-Clips-Pair/dp/B004UOUTIK/ref=sr_1_3?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1421812514&sr=1-3&keywords=battery+clips"]These battery clips[/a]

With this equipment you only need 3.5 hours of sunlight to generate 20 Ahrs of power.  Or you can run more "stuff" and use the power knowing you have plenty of time to recharge. I hope this helps and wasn't to wordy but I wanted to give enough of an overview that you might be comfortable enough to try it. Fire away with questions.

[whoofit]

Beware any company selling a "Solar Generator". I believe they call that an oxymoron?