Monday, September 6, 2010
Oops and soup
Things are starting to cool down, but I still find myself needing ac for a portion of the day. Today around 11, I fired up the generator and the ac. Then, around 3:30, I was up and noticed my inverter was only reading 20 volts. Turns out I had been running off of the inverter all day. That would be fine, except I was also running the generator with no load.
At work, I have been primarily eating soup, while eating fast food during the day. So this week I purchased a thermos. It seems to work pretty good. The soup I made at 6am is still hot and it has its own cup to pour the soup into. My plan is to take the thermos back into work each day for cleaning and refill.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
One Year Anniversary: One year of camping.
As of August 17th, I have weathered summer, fall, winter, spring, and summer again in the van. It wasn't always easy, but it wasn't that bad either. Over time I have improved the interior of the van to the point where I now have reliable power, a bed, a desk, a chair, and storage. In short, it has become an adequate mobile apartment (minus a shower/sink). From the world's perspective -- I am roughing it in a van. From my perspective, I have a comfortable place to sleep.
One thing that has really helped is the presence of a local library. I can go to the air conditioned library with my laptop, get online, and stay there for as long as I like. I recently been utilizing the library to study for an Oracle certification. In fact, the library is tied in with Safari Bookshelf, so I have access to large number of study materials beyond what the library has.
Money-wise, I have continued to keep up with tracking my expenses. This spring, I had some major expenditures in solar panels, batteries, charge controllers, and wiring of the same. The end result of this is a 24V solar-charged battery system that provides 12/24V DC and 120V AC power to anything I need. I spent around $1700 on this system, so that brought my equipment costs to $4,698, or $391.50/month. My operating costs include things like generator fuel, propane, inspection, insurance, and gym membership. The total in operating costs for the year was $581, or $48.44/month. The combined total was $5,279, or $439.40/month.
For comparison, a cheap 1-bedroom apartment (in a shared house) in this area is $500/month and utilities would easily add $100 on top of that. So over the course of a year, I would have spent $7600 on such an apartment. This means that over the course of 1 year, I saved $2,321 in rent/utilities by camping at work. What makes this more exciting is that the bulk of my cost was purchasing equipment. Barring any issues with my equipment and assuming $50/month operating cost, my second year will only cost me $600.
Where I Went Wrong
Looking back, there are a few things I would have liked to do differently.
One thing that has really helped is the presence of a local library. I can go to the air conditioned library with my laptop, get online, and stay there for as long as I like. I recently been utilizing the library to study for an Oracle certification. In fact, the library is tied in with Safari Bookshelf, so I have access to large number of study materials beyond what the library has.
Money-wise, I have continued to keep up with tracking my expenses. This spring, I had some major expenditures in solar panels, batteries, charge controllers, and wiring of the same. The end result of this is a 24V solar-charged battery system that provides 12/24V DC and 120V AC power to anything I need. I spent around $1700 on this system, so that brought my equipment costs to $4,698, or $391.50/month. My operating costs include things like generator fuel, propane, inspection, insurance, and gym membership. The total in operating costs for the year was $581, or $48.44/month. The combined total was $5,279, or $439.40/month.
For comparison, a cheap 1-bedroom apartment (in a shared house) in this area is $500/month and utilities would easily add $100 on top of that. So over the course of a year, I would have spent $7600 on such an apartment. This means that over the course of 1 year, I saved $2,321 in rent/utilities by camping at work. What makes this more exciting is that the bulk of my cost was purchasing equipment. Barring any issues with my equipment and assuming $50/month operating cost, my second year will only cost me $600.
Where I Went Wrong
Looking back, there are a few things I would have liked to do differently.
- The mattress. I started off with the van's mattress, which was an ok way to get started, but then I went to an air mattress. If I had done my research, I would have learned that air mattresses and cold weather don't mix. I replaced it with a foam mattress from Ikea, but I would have been $50 richer going with the foam mattress from the start.
- Solar panels. I should have gone a full summer of measuring my air conditioner's load before building my battery/solar panel array. I was basing it off of my usage from the end of August. Also, I didn't get a chance to measure wattage pull until winter. To do this, I cranked up the furnace at home and then turned on the air conditioner. I came up with a pull of 500-600 Watts. However, during this hot summer, I really pull 1000-1200W, about double what I built for. In order to handle that, I will need 2-3 times the batteries I currently have, plus the copper wiring to tie it all together. Once I increase my batteries to handle the load, I would then need to add another solar panel to recharge the system in time for each week. If I had waited and got a full summer's worth of readings from the watt meter, I could have purchased and built with more confidence. On the other hand, researching setting up the system was a desired learning experience that I suspect will prove useful in the future.
- Generator choice. Granted, I probably couldn't have known this, but the generator I got often requires moving the choke in order to start it. So while I was able to rig up a remote start, most of the time I still had to go to the generator and operate the choke. I may be able to work around this using a cable and spring setup, but I suspect the result will be flaky. Some of the more expensive generators from Honda come with remote starts (and are quieter). The downside is that they usually only hold 2 gallons of gas.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
84 sq foot house
During half the week, I live in a 60ft square foot home, but I don't cook and shower inside it. This lady has essentially built a house on a trailer and has 84 square feet. I like it.
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81014570/
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81014570/
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Low Voltage Beep
I ran the air conditioner for a short while yesterday, along with most of today. Around 3:30pm, I got a low voltage warning from the inverter. The voltage reading on the inverter was at 20V (vs 25V where it starts at).
For 5/24, I ran the air conditioner for 46minutes and pulled 0.41Kwh. For today, I ran it 5hrs, 40 minutes and pulled 1.74Kwh before I got the beep. That totals to 6hrs, 26minutes of run time and 2.15KWhrs. In my last post, I had estimated my battery bank of being capable of 8.4Kwhrs (Each battery being a 2.1KWhr battery, times 4 batteries). So I seem to be getting about the run time of one battery instead of 4 (or even 2).
Now, to be 100% fair.. once I turned off the air conditioner, I continued to run the fan for another 1.5 hours. Granted, the power usage of the fan is less than the output of the solar panel, so it could potentially run indefinitely.
Given the current setup, I definitely will not be able to use the air conditioner for 3 days on one charge. At this point, I'm not exactly sure why I'm only getting 25% of my capacity out of the system. Perhaps I need to redo the wiring inside the battery box to more evenly draw across all 4 batteries.
As a stopgag, I can try a few other options. The easiest would be to bring the generator back down and only run it once the batteries have ran out. I also have a 24V charger, so I could be charging the batteries off the generator at the same time. I could also upgrade my battery array to 6 or 8 batteries.
Another option I've been considering is one of the evaporative/swamp coolers. Generally, these are a fan that blows over water. They work on two concepts: 1) water has thermal mass and stays cooler longer, and 2) small drops of water will cool you down and then evaporate away. They have a few downsides: 1) they don't actually cool the air, just make you feel cooler, and 2) they increase the humidity. If you let them run long enough in an enclosed space, the humidity increases and the cooling effect stops. Also, if the humidity is too high, sweat stops evaporating and you warm up either further. Another disadvantage is that you have to refill the water from time to time.
Back to the drawing board..
For 5/24, I ran the air conditioner for 46minutes and pulled 0.41Kwh. For today, I ran it 5hrs, 40 minutes and pulled 1.74Kwh before I got the beep. That totals to 6hrs, 26minutes of run time and 2.15KWhrs. In my last post, I had estimated my battery bank of being capable of 8.4Kwhrs (Each battery being a 2.1KWhr battery, times 4 batteries). So I seem to be getting about the run time of one battery instead of 4 (or even 2).
Now, to be 100% fair.. once I turned off the air conditioner, I continued to run the fan for another 1.5 hours. Granted, the power usage of the fan is less than the output of the solar panel, so it could potentially run indefinitely.
Given the current setup, I definitely will not be able to use the air conditioner for 3 days on one charge. At this point, I'm not exactly sure why I'm only getting 25% of my capacity out of the system. Perhaps I need to redo the wiring inside the battery box to more evenly draw across all 4 batteries.
As a stopgag, I can try a few other options. The easiest would be to bring the generator back down and only run it once the batteries have ran out. I also have a 24V charger, so I could be charging the batteries off the generator at the same time. I could also upgrade my battery array to 6 or 8 batteries.
Another option I've been considering is one of the evaporative/swamp coolers. Generally, these are a fan that blows over water. They work on two concepts: 1) water has thermal mass and stays cooler longer, and 2) small drops of water will cool you down and then evaporate away. They have a few downsides: 1) they don't actually cool the air, just make you feel cooler, and 2) they increase the humidity. If you let them run long enough in an enclosed space, the humidity increases and the cooling effect stops. Also, if the humidity is too high, sweat stops evaporating and you warm up either further. Another disadvantage is that you have to refill the water from time to time.
Back to the drawing board..
Monday, May 3, 2010
Electrical setup details.
Today I thought I'd take some time and explain my electronics setup in greater detail. A lot of this system is all about crunching numbers. The math isn't complicated - it's all multiplication and division, elementary school type word problems.
A friend of mine likes to claim that I should be able to calculate all of this out before purchasing the first battery. And you sort of can. You can determine how big your system will be and how long it will operate under different loads. But what he doesn't seem to get is that you can't always determine your load. The bulk of my setup is in place in order to operate an air conditioner. How much I use this air conditioner and how hard the air conditioner works changes like the weather. The compressor kicks on and off as needed and this is a variable you can only learn by testing over a period of time. Manufacturers may have this data, but rarely is it published. Plus, a number of variables such as humidity and thermal change make this data unreliable. More on this later.
First, we have the battery pack. These are 4x 12V deep-cycle batteries with a reserve capacity of 175Amp-hours each. What is an amp-hour? Simply put, it measures the amount of Amps a battery can produce for 1 hour before it is discharged. So a 175Ah 12V battery can (theoretically) produce 175 Amps for 1 hour before becoming depleted. For our purposes, we really wan the "watt-hours" of the battery. This of course is how many Watts of power a battery can produce for one hour. To caclulate power, we multiply Amperage times Voltage: 175A * 12V = 2100Wh (or 2.1KWh). So each battery can run a 2000 Watt appliance for 1 hour, or a 1000 Watt appliance for 2 hours.
We have 4 of these batteries, divided into 2 sets of 2. Within each set, the batteries are connected in parallel using #2 AWG wire, which increases the amperage capability from 175Ah to 350Ah, but not the voltage. The power rating for 350Ah set is 4.2Kw. The two sets are then connected in series, which leaves the amperage the same, but increases the voltage to 24V. So we now have a 350Ah system at 24V, or more importantly an 8.4KWh battery system.
At this point, you may be wondering why I am going from 12V to 24V. If all 4 were hooked up in parallel, I would still have gotten an 8.4KWh system. The reason has to do with wiring and efficiency. DC voltage can drop quite easily over short distances. So if you're going to work with DC voltages, you want to get your voltage up as high as possible before transmitting it. In practice, most people have to choose between 12V, 24V, and 48V systems. You usually only see 48V in grid-tie systems and industrial applications.
Connected to this battery pack, I have 3 devices:
The solar panel is an HQRP 24V, 180W solar panel (7.5A). Most guides on designing solar systems recommend that you get a solar panel array capable of producing 30% of your system's capacity. This guideline is for a daily use system. When the guides discuss this, they typically refer to your battery bank's capacity (and the battery capacity should always be 2-3 times your load). Apparently 30% has been determined as the optimal amount for recharging batteries. If you recharge with too much power, you could damage the batteries. If you recharge too slowly, you could end up never recharging the batteries.
My solor panel is way below this recommendation. At the 8.4KWh rating, the 180W panel is around 2% capacity. If I built my array out to the full 840W that the charge controller can handle, I would still only be at 10% capacity. However, I do not use this system on a daily basis. During last August's super hot weeks, I ran the air conditioner 4-5 hours each day. So on a peak long week, I will use the air conditioner for 3 x 5-hour stretches, for a total of 15hours each week.
My current air conditioner peaks around 1000W while the compressor is running. The compressor will run for 1-2 minutes, and then run the fan for 4-6 minutes. During the one measurement I recorded (1hr, 20 minutes), the air conditioner averaged 0.31KW/hour. A 15-hour week should pull 4.62KW, or just over half of my battery bank's capacity. I do want to take more measurements of this load to get better figures. This air conditioner is a 5200 BTU with an EER of 11 - see it on my equipment page.
To be fair, the inverter and wiring do loose some power, just as any system does. Also, I will from time to time run some 12V appliances off of the system. All of these impact my calculation. Also, during the morning and evenings when I am not utilizing my air conditioner, the solar panel is hard at work recharging the system. I have only run the air conditioner on a few occasions, and only 2 days in a row so far (cooler weather outside). But on day 2, the battery pack is recharged before I start the air conditioner. On day three, the battery pack is recharged again even though I haven't started the air conditioner.
I don't know if that will remain true when the weather heats up and the air conditioner has to work harder. At 8.4KWh, the battery pack can sustain around 0.5KW/hour for 15 hours, then it would need completely recharged. If hotter weather begins taking me beyond 0.5KW/hour, my best solution is to increase the size of the battery bank to match. If I increase the size of the battery bank and find that the batteries are not getting recharged in suitable time, I will have to increase the size of the solar array to shorten the recharge time. Neither is exactly cheap. The batteries run around $85, plus the expensive wiring (call it $100/battery). I also need to find room for the batteries (somewhere where I can tie them into the existing set). The solar panel itself can run $500-$600, but can be easily mounted on the roof with the other one.
The 12V converter was purchased on ebay for around $30 and comes from Hong Kong. It is rated at 30A, but I have it fused at 25A (the fuse goes between the converter and the 24V battery pack) for added safety. The converter has two accessory wires which I have no use for (but come in handy for a radio setup). The 12V output goes into a fuse block. I paid way too much for this on ebay for $48 shipped. If you are smart, you'll go with my original idea and pull one off a junkyard car for much less, perhaps free. This fuse block has two independent positive buses, a negative bus, and 14 fuse slots. I could technically run separate 12V and 24V devices off of this, but I have no 24V devices, so the two positive buses are linked together.
Currently, I have 3 x 5A circuits coming off of the fuse bus. One goes to the fan vent in the ceiling. Another goes to a set of lights over the desk (which I pulled out of the van originally). The final one goes to a 3-port power socket (cigarette lighter socket). This lets me plug in common 12V car accessories such as cell phone chargers.
A friend of mine likes to claim that I should be able to calculate all of this out before purchasing the first battery. And you sort of can. You can determine how big your system will be and how long it will operate under different loads. But what he doesn't seem to get is that you can't always determine your load. The bulk of my setup is in place in order to operate an air conditioner. How much I use this air conditioner and how hard the air conditioner works changes like the weather. The compressor kicks on and off as needed and this is a variable you can only learn by testing over a period of time. Manufacturers may have this data, but rarely is it published. Plus, a number of variables such as humidity and thermal change make this data unreliable. More on this later.
First, we have the battery pack. These are 4x 12V deep-cycle batteries with a reserve capacity of 175Amp-hours each. What is an amp-hour? Simply put, it measures the amount of Amps a battery can produce for 1 hour before it is discharged. So a 175Ah 12V battery can (theoretically) produce 175 Amps for 1 hour before becoming depleted. For our purposes, we really wan the "watt-hours" of the battery. This of course is how many Watts of power a battery can produce for one hour. To caclulate power, we multiply Amperage times Voltage: 175A * 12V = 2100Wh (or 2.1KWh). So each battery can run a 2000 Watt appliance for 1 hour, or a 1000 Watt appliance for 2 hours.
We have 4 of these batteries, divided into 2 sets of 2. Within each set, the batteries are connected in parallel using #2 AWG wire, which increases the amperage capability from 175Ah to 350Ah, but not the voltage. The power rating for 350Ah set is 4.2Kw. The two sets are then connected in series, which leaves the amperage the same, but increases the voltage to 24V. So we now have a 350Ah system at 24V, or more importantly an 8.4KWh battery system.
At this point, you may be wondering why I am going from 12V to 24V. If all 4 were hooked up in parallel, I would still have gotten an 8.4KWh system. The reason has to do with wiring and efficiency. DC voltage can drop quite easily over short distances. So if you're going to work with DC voltages, you want to get your voltage up as high as possible before transmitting it. In practice, most people have to choose between 12V, 24V, and 48V systems. You usually only see 48V in grid-tie systems and industrial applications.
Connected to this battery pack, I have 3 devices:
- A 24V 1500W A/C Inverter - this will convert my 24 volt DC electricity into 120V house current and can power 1500W devices (with a peak of 3000W). This is connected via #4 AWG wire.
- A 12 volt converter. This little box regulates the 24V voltage down to 12 volts, which is quite useful since a large number of devices are designed to operate at 12 volts. The box claims to be rated at 30A, but I have it fused at 25A.
- A Xantrex C35 - 24-volt DC charge controller. This charge controller is capable of 35A @ 24V or 840W. This is then connected to the solar panel. Due to the higher voltage/lower wattage, this is connected with #10 AWG wire -- technically called MC4 Interconnect wire, which is standard on most solar panels these days.
The solar panel is an HQRP 24V, 180W solar panel (7.5A). Most guides on designing solar systems recommend that you get a solar panel array capable of producing 30% of your system's capacity. This guideline is for a daily use system. When the guides discuss this, they typically refer to your battery bank's capacity (and the battery capacity should always be 2-3 times your load). Apparently 30% has been determined as the optimal amount for recharging batteries. If you recharge with too much power, you could damage the batteries. If you recharge too slowly, you could end up never recharging the batteries.
My solor panel is way below this recommendation. At the 8.4KWh rating, the 180W panel is around 2% capacity. If I built my array out to the full 840W that the charge controller can handle, I would still only be at 10% capacity. However, I do not use this system on a daily basis. During last August's super hot weeks, I ran the air conditioner 4-5 hours each day. So on a peak long week, I will use the air conditioner for 3 x 5-hour stretches, for a total of 15hours each week.
My current air conditioner peaks around 1000W while the compressor is running. The compressor will run for 1-2 minutes, and then run the fan for 4-6 minutes. During the one measurement I recorded (1hr, 20 minutes), the air conditioner averaged 0.31KW/hour. A 15-hour week should pull 4.62KW, or just over half of my battery bank's capacity. I do want to take more measurements of this load to get better figures. This air conditioner is a 5200 BTU with an EER of 11 - see it on my equipment page.
To be fair, the inverter and wiring do loose some power, just as any system does. Also, I will from time to time run some 12V appliances off of the system. All of these impact my calculation. Also, during the morning and evenings when I am not utilizing my air conditioner, the solar panel is hard at work recharging the system. I have only run the air conditioner on a few occasions, and only 2 days in a row so far (cooler weather outside). But on day 2, the battery pack is recharged before I start the air conditioner. On day three, the battery pack is recharged again even though I haven't started the air conditioner.
I don't know if that will remain true when the weather heats up and the air conditioner has to work harder. At 8.4KWh, the battery pack can sustain around 0.5KW/hour for 15 hours, then it would need completely recharged. If hotter weather begins taking me beyond 0.5KW/hour, my best solution is to increase the size of the battery bank to match. If I increase the size of the battery bank and find that the batteries are not getting recharged in suitable time, I will have to increase the size of the solar array to shorten the recharge time. Neither is exactly cheap. The batteries run around $85, plus the expensive wiring (call it $100/battery). I also need to find room for the batteries (somewhere where I can tie them into the existing set). The solar panel itself can run $500-$600, but can be easily mounted on the roof with the other one.
The 12V converter was purchased on ebay for around $30 and comes from Hong Kong. It is rated at 30A, but I have it fused at 25A (the fuse goes between the converter and the 24V battery pack) for added safety. The converter has two accessory wires which I have no use for (but come in handy for a radio setup). The 12V output goes into a fuse block. I paid way too much for this on ebay for $48 shipped. If you are smart, you'll go with my original idea and pull one off a junkyard car for much less, perhaps free. This fuse block has two independent positive buses, a negative bus, and 14 fuse slots. I could technically run separate 12V and 24V devices off of this, but I have no 24V devices, so the two positive buses are linked together.
Currently, I have 3 x 5A circuits coming off of the fuse bus. One goes to the fan vent in the ceiling. Another goes to a set of lights over the desk (which I pulled out of the van originally). The final one goes to a 3-port power socket (cigarette lighter socket). This lets me plug in common 12V car accessories such as cell phone chargers.
Monday, April 12, 2010
Air Conditioning!!
Today topsy-turveyed some of my notes from last week. The high we were calling for today was 70. My outdoor probe recorded 75F, which should have been fine. However, inside reached 85 around 12:30. The thermometer on top of the black battery box read 89.
I got up around 1 and began the air conditoner install. The rubber grommet I had didn't work for attaching the hose, so I will have to shop around for one. What I did in the meantime was to prop the air conditioner up on a metal basket I have and place a water bottle underneat the drain plug. After an hour, I have yet to see any water form to drip down, so I don't know how often I would have to empty it, if at all.
At this point, the air conditioner has been running for slightly over an hour and performed 4 cycles of running the compressor. The last cycle was one I forced by turning the temp from 76 down to 60. The compressor runs for a 1-3 minutes than shuts off, after which the fan runs. The first cycle took the wattage up to 500. However the second and third cycles slowly worked their way up to 1000W before the compressor turned off. The fourth cycle went up to 750W before shutting off. Checking my watt-meter, it ran for 1hr 21m and pulled .41Kw.
The duct hose will need some insulation wrapped around it. I moved my temp probe to the duct and when the compressor runs, the hose reachs around 120F. Additionally, the glue on my foil tape seems to break down. Parts of the tape that I would press snugly against the aluminum would peel back later. The first time I noticed this, it was letting the hot air out directly into the cab of the van. I thought this was supposed to be a high-heat tape. I guess 120F is too high of heat for something made to go over furnace ducts.
I got up around 1 and began the air conditoner install. The rubber grommet I had didn't work for attaching the hose, so I will have to shop around for one. What I did in the meantime was to prop the air conditioner up on a metal basket I have and place a water bottle underneat the drain plug. After an hour, I have yet to see any water form to drip down, so I don't know how often I would have to empty it, if at all.
At this point, the air conditioner has been running for slightly over an hour and performed 4 cycles of running the compressor. The last cycle was one I forced by turning the temp from 76 down to 60. The compressor runs for a 1-3 minutes than shuts off, after which the fan runs. The first cycle took the wattage up to 500. However the second and third cycles slowly worked their way up to 1000W before the compressor turned off. The fourth cycle went up to 750W before shutting off. Checking my watt-meter, it ran for 1hr 21m and pulled .41Kw.
The duct hose will need some insulation wrapped around it. I moved my temp probe to the duct and when the compressor runs, the hose reachs around 120F. Additionally, the glue on my foil tape seems to break down. Parts of the tape that I would press snugly against the aluminum would peel back later. The first time I noticed this, it was letting the hot air out directly into the cab of the van. I thought this was supposed to be a high-heat tape. I guess 120F is too high of heat for something made to go over furnace ducts.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Van Upgrades and Spring Heat
As you saw in the last post, I have been doing a lot of work on the van.
Now, with all these improvements, I plan on being able to be "generator free" this summer. I have also purchased a Frigidaire 5200 BTU AC
that will consume < 500W when running. It also has an energy saver mode that will kick off the compressor and operate a fan. I am very excited to see how everything works together.
The downside: This week, I did not have either air conditioner in the van. Temperatures Mon-Wed peaked in the 90Fs, and according my thermometer and others, reached 100F over the parking lot.
The upside: The insulation and exhaust are definitely doing their trick. Previously the van would heat up approximately 20F more than the outside. If it was 60-70 outside, I would get 80-90 inside. It was a tin oven. For this week, it was hot but understandably so. Monday: temperatures outside showed reaching 97F on my thermometer. Inside the van peaked around 92F. On Tuesday, the situation worsened. At the peak (around 1-2PM), the temperature outside reached 100F while inside went to 102F. Unbearable even with the fans blowing all the air around. Today however, was somewhat nicer. The temp still made it up to 98F outside, but inside stayed about the same or a 1-3 degrees less. It was hot, but the humidity went down to 26%. Normally, it is 35% inside the van. The lower humidity made it bearable, even comfortable inside.
Another downside of running fans is that you have to be careful how you sleep. If your mouth is slightly open, it will dry out from all the air rushing around.
Now that the major work is done, I will be able to leave the van stationary again, prolonging the vehicle's life and reducing my gas expenses. Currently, it sits around 127k miles, which isn't much for a '93, especially with the truck engine inside it.
- Pulled out all the seats in the back
- Placed insulation on the floors and walls
- Put down a wooden floor
- Added a roof vent with a built in 12V exhaust fan
.
- Added 4x 175Ah deep-cycle batteries in 24V array (2 parallel banks in a series circuit)
- Added a 180W 24V solar panel
- Added a Xantrec C35 24V charge controller
- Added a 24V 1500W inverter
- Added a 24V to 12V converter
- I have replaced the air mattress with a foam mattress
Now, with all these improvements, I plan on being able to be "generator free" this summer. I have also purchased a Frigidaire 5200 BTU AC
that will consume < 500W when running. It also has an energy saver mode that will kick off the compressor and operate a fan. I am very excited to see how everything works together.The downside: This week, I did not have either air conditioner in the van. Temperatures Mon-Wed peaked in the 90Fs, and according my thermometer and others, reached 100F over the parking lot.
The upside: The insulation and exhaust are definitely doing their trick. Previously the van would heat up approximately 20F more than the outside. If it was 60-70 outside, I would get 80-90 inside. It was a tin oven. For this week, it was hot but understandably so. Monday: temperatures outside showed reaching 97F on my thermometer. Inside the van peaked around 92F. On Tuesday, the situation worsened. At the peak (around 1-2PM), the temperature outside reached 100F while inside went to 102F. Unbearable even with the fans blowing all the air around. Today however, was somewhat nicer. The temp still made it up to 98F outside, but inside stayed about the same or a 1-3 degrees less. It was hot, but the humidity went down to 26%. Normally, it is 35% inside the van. The lower humidity made it bearable, even comfortable inside.
Another downside of running fans is that you have to be careful how you sleep. If your mouth is slightly open, it will dry out from all the air rushing around.
Now that the major work is done, I will be able to leave the van stationary again, prolonging the vehicle's life and reducing my gas expenses. Currently, it sits around 127k miles, which isn't much for a '93, especially with the truck engine inside it.
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