Posts tagged Solar
How Can We Afford Lithium Batteries?

Every time I come across RVers who have switched to lithium batteries, the first question that comes to mind is: how the heck can they afford lithium batteries? It’s no secret that they are expensive! Lithium batteries can cost anywhere from $5,000 to $8,000. So then, how the hell did we afford them?

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RV Rebuild: Project Overview - All The Numbers!

We didn’t set out to rebuild a whole damn RV. The original plan was to buy a standard RV trailer, install solar equipment, and maybe hit the inside with some paint to cover up the original décor. But it turned into much, much more than that. It’s a good thing we didn’t know that at the beginning, or we’d never have started…and today we’re glad we did what we did. But yeah, it was a big project. Here’s a big-picture look at what we did, and what it took.

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Residential Fridges In Boondocking RVs - Updated Summer 2017

Folks are getting really excited about residential fridges in RVs. Seems like a lot of this is driven by the desire for larger, more feature-rich refrigerators. But the move away from 2-way and 3-way fridges is exciting to boondockers like us, too. If you’ve been wondering what it takes to run a residential unit in your RV – and whether you could use one while boondocking – I’d like to share some info that might help you decide if it’s right for you.

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The Spectre Of Phantom Loads

If you start reading about off-grid electricity or RV boondocking, you’ll come across mention of phantom loads pretty quickly. A phantom load is something that draws power but isn’t doing anything useful for you directly (and might be keeping itself secret, just to piss you off). Reading about these, they sound like a major obstacle to off-grid living, but our personal experience has shown that these loads are manageable once you understand them.

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Solar Panel Shading Experiment

If you have magic rectangles on your roof that turn sunlight into electricity, you probably want to make sure they get plenty of sun. You probably would go out of your way to make sure nothing else on your roof is casting shadows on them, right? But that’s pretty hard, on an RV roof. There’s not much space, and lots of other things up there to cast shadows. So what about little shadows? Exactly how much do you need to freak out about shading on your solar panels?

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When Was The Last Time You Showered?

Back home I showered daily. Ok, sometimes I'd skip a day if I was lazy or just hadn't sweated enough. But there wasn't ever a need to keep track because I showered whenever I wanted to. I didn't have to think about whether there was enough water or enough electricity to shower. Since in living the Toaster, I don't always get to shower when I want to.

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