Solar camping preliminary graphics

I currently have a deep-cycle, second battery under the hood of my truck. It is connected to an 800-watt inverter under the back-seat of my truck.

Battery Diagram

For days when I expect to be camping at a campsite for multiple days without moving the truck, I want to be able to provide the truck with solar power to charge the deep-cycle battery during the daytime and operate low-wattage appliances like an alarm clock, an AM/FM radio, and a CB Radio – and not have to start up the truck every couple of hours. If I plan to go out hiking, hunting, or fishing in the evening, it would be nice to be able to leave a light on campsite and know my battery wouldn’t start to discharge until close to dark.

I think a realistic estimate to power produced would be:

  • 50-70 watt/hour on a sunny day
  • 0.5-0.7 kW/hr for a 10-hour day
  • 20-40 watt/hour on a cloudy/drizzle day or with moderate shade
  • 0.2-0.4 kW/hr for a 10-hour day

Compared to the 2.2-3.2 kW/hr daily that I use in my apartment that is not a lot of electricity. But I am not planning running a refrigerator, electric hot water heater, or a electric stove on it. I also can just crank the truck up when I need more power from the alternator at night when I need more juice to keep the lights on.

solar1 solar2 solar3 solar4

Bright and Sunny Tuesday

Looks like another bright but cold morning, as we proceed another day closer to the weekend. The weekend weather looks marginal at this point, which is okay, as I probably need to stay in town as I am on call for work. Probably should go to the transfer station too this weekend, as my trash and recycling cans are filled up – they seem to fill up a lot faster when it’s not camping season, and I’m not using theΒ  burnables as kindling to start campfires in the back country. That said, I don’t generate much trash and most of it is recycling – and it’s been since sometime in mid-2013 since I’ve been there.

Nice smooth commute downtown on the Route 719. The bus is fairly light passenger-wise, but it always is at this hour. I’ve really gotten to like to taking the expressway to work, as the bus is quieter and commute is much smoother. Certainly beats driving a car downtown, which you have to warm up and then pay attention while driving, rather then blogging. I usually complete these little short blogposts before work, but then forget to post them until later.

I think its going warm up before the end of the week, if all goes well. Going to be cloudy by Wednesday, but at some point will clear up and warm up to almost normal temperatures. Already the snow seems to be melting, but I don’t believe for the minute that the snow is done for the year. This winter has been too cold for winter to give up so easily, even if we have calender spring on Thursday. Snow will probably stick around in the mountains until well in April – which why I am not really planning my first camping trip until at least mid-April. I hope by the second week of April, things will be greening up for my trip out to the Finger Lakes.

North Lake

Two days to spring on this very cold, but sunny morning that reminds one more of January then mid-March. But warmer weather really can't be that far off.

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