Kevin, Les is a smart guy and he’s right on the money …when he mentions that it probably would be smarter to rely on the Generator & the alternator as your primary charging sources when you’re away from ‘Shore power’…and anything you get from your solar & wind setup is just added ‘frosting on the cake’.
I agree with him totally on this.
Solar power is fantastic stuff; I wouldn’t even consider having a rolling home that wasn’t equipped with solar modules …but it does have its limitations. The same applies to wind generators.
On our last bus “Home” ,I installed a couple of Uni-Solar modules and had a pretty decent bank of storage battery’s. We didn’t have a generator …just the solar panels for off the grid living.
So, one day we unplugged from shore power and moved the bus down to the ‘Fishing Hole’ in Homer. We wanted to be there for the Silver Salmon run …so I could fish everyday and Millie would can it up to store it for winter food.
We were there for a couple of weeks and I was thrilled that the panels were outputting enough power to run our little 12-volt TV and our lights for a few hours everyday…I thought, Wow, this cool.
But what I hadn’t taken into account was we had reached a point of diminishing returns…each day more and more juice was taken out of the battery bank and even with almost 20 hours of Sunlight the panels couldn’t keep up.
Eventually the bank was empty …and the only power we were getting was direct from the modules, which wasn’t that much.
It certainly wasn’t enough to be comfortable.
And, Even if we had picked up some bigger wattage panels and had a larger battery bank …eventually we would have still reached a point of diminishing returns. That just the way it is …given weather situations and our limited roof areas that dictate how many panels we can get up there and how much battery weight we can carry…etc.etc.etc.
For me ‘comfort’ is really important. I don’t ever buy an RV or convert a Bus or van to just camp out in for a couple of weeks.
They’re always our Fulltime Home…. and I don’t want to do without the same conveniences and comfort that a ‘stick house’ has.
Kevin it’s not so much an issue of what you’re looking at cant be done…it’s more an issue of, is it truly efficient in the long run …and how much ‘comfort’ are you willing to give up.
I truly understand what you’re trying to do here …But even though It might sound and look really cool on ‘paper’ … after you live without the comforts of home for a while …you get sick of doing without.
All you’re doing is ‘Campin out’ …and that ‘gets old’ after a couple of years.
I’m talking from COMPLETE experience here.
Starting in the 70’s I lived out of a backpack and hitchhiked all over this country and many others for a LOT of years…I’ve lived in communes and all sorts of places where the electrical power was coming from solar panels…and nothing else.
Millie & I lived in lots of places with no Electricity other than Solar.
Basically out of 45 years of living on this planet …I did without the civilized amenities for over 22 years …
It’s fun & cool to live that way …but it sucks after awhile.
The REALITY of living off the grid completely, unless you’re a millionaire who can afford a massive solar array and an equally massive bank of storage batteries is doing ‘without’.
You’re endlessly running around nervously watching your battery capacity …shutting off the TV in the middle of something you really wanted to see …and all sorts of other non-fun things.
Trust me …the allure of a lifestyle like this wears off pretty quickly.
That’s not to say a person can’t have a really good Alternative energy system on their Rig …they just need to recognize its limitations…and be realistic about it.
And even though there’s new stuff coming out every year that makes the dream of living completely off the grid, more & more reachable …it still has its limitations.
The sun doesn’t always cooperate …once you start living with solar modules you’ll find out that many months of the year have less than optimal solar gain. You really need to take into account those bad times more seriously than the optimal situations when you’re looking at installing a system. Those are the times you really need the power.
So, I second the idea of getting a good little generator like the Honda EU2000i (Got one, LOVE it)…and if it were me, I’d get rid of that big gas-hogging noisy generator you’ve got right away and use that space for a decent sized battery bank.
That big generator must weigh a Hell of a lot…I imagine you could put at least 6 decent batteries in that compartment and still be below the weight of that generator.
The batteries you choose are up to you. There’s a lot of info out there on what battery is best and all that…but lots of folks are perfectly happy using deep-cycle batteries in their systems.
Then figure out what type of Solar panels and charge controller you want and need.
Personally I always stick with Uni-Solar Amorphous modules…they’re made up of a continuous layer of silicon versus a mono or poly-crystalline panel, which is made of a bunch of solar cells wired up together.
Amorphous panels produce power even when partially shaded …so you don’t need to be out there in direct sunlight to make them work. There also less effected by hot temperatures.
The only problem with amorphous panels is they are not available in wattages much higher than 64 watts. So you’d need at least 2 of them to even bother.
Then do all the things Les said…figure out your real electrical needs and design your whole system around that.
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Kevin, As far as Wind speed & Solar Gain charts go…
There’s plenty of websites out there that have charts on regional wind speed and solar gain data. But you have to be really careful how you read & interpret them …because they’re really designed to help with’ site specific’ planning.
What that means is …say a person buys a piece of property outside of Eugene Oregon. They decide to ‘power’ their new home using Alternative means. So they go to the local Solar Panel & such dealer and ask what can they use and what they can expect.
The dealer will put out his/her charts and tell them…well, you don’t get enough wind around your property to make installing a wind generator worth the effort or price …and to power your home year round using solar you’ll need …etc. etc.
That’s the ‘right’ way to go about designing and installing an alternative energy system in a home…. but a Bus or RV has a different set of working parameters attached to them.
They MOVE.
If a person is converting a rig to actually travel, instead of remaining parked in one spot for most of the year …you’re going to be exposed to many different areas that have completely different weather and solar gain conditions than the last spot you visited.
I.O.…a wind generator might be useless in Eugene, but once you drive over to the coast you’ll get plenty of situations where your wind generator is exposed to conditions that make it work.
I guess my point is …these charts are very useful if you want to check out the angle you’ll need to position your panels at a particular time of year for best solar gain… or to find out what you can expect the wind will be doing in August while you’re camped out in the Rockies…but they should never be used to figure out if a particular piece of Alternative Energy equipment is worth installing on your rig.
Kevin, there’s a lot of great information in books and on the ‘web’ about Alternative energy…but You have to be really careful about this sort of thing …there’s tons of folks out there (Not Here, but on other sites) who are going to tell you ‘it can’t be done ‘ or ‘it’s cost ineffective’…etc. etc. etc.
Don’t listen to them …they don’t know what the hell they’re talking about.
They installed a simple solar panel setup on their RV last year and now think they’re expects on Alternative energy…who can tell you a wind generator or composting toilet cant work in a rolling home.
Which of course is totally Bogus…and coming from abject ignorance on the subject.
I’m not trying to tell you what to do Kevin …I hope you don’t think so. I’m a bit sick today, so my writing style might seem a bit on the obnoxious side, but its not meant to be.
Just keep pluggin’ away until you figure out what’s best for you…I think it’s a cool thing you’re trying to aspire to.
Here’s a pic of a person who got really serious about alternative energy and has a system that can handle just about any load he wants to put on it. But imagine how much time it takes him to stow that system just so he can drive.