You've heard me say before about what rubbish these solar cells and wind turbines are on many occasions. I do try every now and then to get this green nonsense to work. Today I pulled out my solar panel and connected a 12v CPU fan to it. I aimed the panel squarely at the sun at the perfect angle and waited. Nothing happened. Unsurprised I connected my 12v CPU fan to a 6v battery and it whirred away nicely, shifting a good quantity of air.
Just to be sure - the panel was sold as 12V 5W and the CPU fan was sold as 12v. It probably only consumes 500MA at most or 10% of the panel's rated output. It is therefore rather strange that the fan does not spin, given the figures. Now a cynic would probably say that the panel manufacturer was grossly exagerating the output of the panel. Yeah... I'll go with that. Having seen it at midday failing to make a 12v indicator panel light bulb glow more than very faintly I'm going to go with the solar panel is a load of rubbish.
Sadly, this is not my first foolish forray into the fantasy world of renewable energy. Years ago I had a small panel and I plugged it into my cellphone to charge my cellphone. As I didn't actually need to use that particular phone, I left the whole lot plugged up on a windowsill for an entire week. After that week, during which the sun shone firercly on the panel, the phone had enough charge in it to run it for 15 minutes. Bear in mind this was an old style flip phone. If I remember correctly it was an Eriksson T15 or something similar. Those were the days when a phone could be charged and left on standby for 10 days before having to recharge it.
It's very tempting to follow the hoohaa about renewable energy but the truth is that electricity generated from the sun and from wind is just nonsense. Looking at the wind turbines available for motorhomes and the solar panels, the electricity generated is truly pitiful and the cost is truly outrageous. In order to run a microwave the theory is that a standard microwave such as the one I tossed out a few weeks ago because it was shot, would need 1100watts to power it. In terms of my pitiful little $15 5W solar panel that can't run a fan or light a bulb, in order to produce 1100W, I'd need 220 panels. Given that the panel is about 12 inches by 8 inches, that's going to cover 146 square feet. That, by the way is probably more space than the entire roof of my bus. It would cost $3,300 too. Even if bigger more economical panels were used then the power produced would still be unlikely to power my microwave.
Looking at things another way, if my panel cannot actually produce its stated capacity but can produce about 10% of it then things look pretty bleak for solar panels. Assuming a whole roof covered with panels producing a fanciful 1100W but an actual 110W then that 110W would have to be produced for 10 hours in order to produce enough power to run the microwave for just 1 hour. Now I bet you're saying that nobody runs a microwave for an hour. Think again! That's a cheap-ass Rival microwave that costs $50 in Walmart. That thing takes 15 minutes to cook a plate of food. There's three meals and maybe a couple of drinks and the entire day's supply of power is gone. No mention of heating water to shower, running lighting or anything else.
So, what is the solution? Well, initially I just won't be wasting my time with electricity unless it's of the battery powered or plugin variety. Speaking of battery powered, I did buy some AA powered phone chargers. There is a possibility of another couple of solutions too. One is to put a 12v battery under the bus, connected to the main batteries when driving so they will charge and disconnected when camping but connected to the house circuits instead. That could be achieved with a simple, ordinary switch on the console. Actually that is probably by far the best solution!
Thinking about the battery under the bus, it would need a massively powerful switch to control the amperage produced by the alternator. Thus a switching relay is likely to be needed. There sure is a lot of electrical work I need to do under the bus besides this!
There are starting batteries available that also have air compressors and USB power connectors. They don't have batteries that are all that worthwile inside. Usually 20AH at most. Those are pretty similar to the uninterruptable power supplies used in most offices. Again, the problem is a miserly battery.
At the moment, electricity is a way off in the future. However I have tried a few things that just haven't worked out. Mostly it has been the solar garbage that has been the hold up. Solar power like wind power really is cloud cuckoo land.
Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wind. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Saturday, March 26, 2016
Investigations revealed that it's possible
To put two 15 gallon barrels end on end on one side of the bus but only one on the other side. That's pretty much what I suspected. It's not possible to put them side by side due to there being insufficient space between the chassis and the skirt. Thus, it looks like I can squeeze in a 15 gallon freshwater tank and a 15 gallon dirty water tank on one side. There's no room for a black tank but that's fine. I went with a bucket solution anyway.
Today was one of those grey, miserable days that threatened and delivered on its threat to rain on everything. What with that and the darkness that comes with rain, nothing was actually achieved on the bus other than to put my latest bus purchases onboard for later use. Last night or this morning, I had an epiphany. I'd previously decided to put the barrels sideways because the ribs would act as stabilisers. Without the ribs as stabilisers I have to put stabilisers. I considered things like plastic door wedges etc but ruled them out as too small. Then I realised brackets would probably work. If the brackets are snug to the sides of the barrel then the barrel should not slop about.
Lying in the yard from demolition of the hillbilly construction was a 14 inch bracket. As it is strengthened with folds, I picked it up and failed totally to bend it. Thus, 14 inch brackets were added to my shopping list. Clearly today was a shopping day - it just wasn't fit to do anything else!
The first port of call was the local Barnyard flea market where there was a CB kiosk. Those with longer memories will recall that on my trip out with the bus a few days ago, the flexible CB aerial was snapped off by a low hanging tree. Incidentally, it was that tree's turn to meet its maker yesterday morning. For days I had been plotting my revenge on that tree but had been too tired after work to be bothered. Yesterday however, m'lady had somebody in to plough the ground for crops. This is a homestead, after all! On its way out, the tractor clearly had encountered the tree and had snapped it off. Problem solved! It would however have been better timed if the tree had not been snapped off before I went to work. I had to go to the immense effort of getting out of my car to move the corpse before I could exit on my way to work.
Thus the first purchase was a longer CB aerial that I will install after I exit the property and remove before I enter the property! After that it was on to Tractor Supply. There, I found 8 more brackets, some chain that would support 450lb (15 gallons of water is about 125lbs) and some steel cable fasteners that looked idea to secure one end of the chain. The other end can be secured with my U bolts. With the length of the U of the U bolt, they can also be used to tighten the chain.
There are several tasks to be completed this week - the first being the electrical breaker box. Then there are the luggage restraints in the back closet and finally the grey water barrels. The fresh water barrel does not currently exist. Though I bought 3 barrels, they were all used and thus unsuitable for potable water. I'll do the fittings for a fresh water barrel but will have to wait until I am near a U-Line supplier that actually has new barrels in stock.
I've been thinking one way and another about the battery system and the ventillation system. Although I looked into installing a smaller 12v battery, I think my original idea was probably best. That idea was just to use tiny dedicated rechargeable lithium battery packs at $8 each. I figure 4 or 5 is all I'll probably need to power my tablet and phone over a few days without power.
The solar fan is something I have investigated. There are several around but judging from what people seem to be saying, it's pot luck as to whether or not they actually work. Truth be told, the message coming across from all this solar and wind stuff is that it's very expensive. It's an idealistic thing that really isn't financially worthwhile. As an example, I could spend three or four hundred dollars on a set of solar panels plus about the same on batteries to get the same amount of power I'd get out of an 800w generator that I can get for $100. Given that I just don't have any real use for electricity with my butane stove, an 800W generator seems a trifle excessive! A 400W generator seems more realistic but such generators seem very hard to find.
For the moment, the solar fan seems to be unavailable. The next thing I looked at was wind-powered extraction fans. Those seem to be massively expensive and available only in Britain though. There are some attic fans available but they're too tall. I don't want to raise the operational height of the bus beyond the three inches of the front vent. The alternative is a small computer fan and a battery or perhaps some kind of roof vent. Perhaps some form of anodised aluminum tubing could be used to draw air out by convection. That would seem to be the simplest and most environmentally friendly option with the bonus that it might even work during the night.
Plans to replace the top flashers with metal blanks still exist as does eventually a plan for a tow hook. There are quite a few underbus plans. One is to put a second video camera and another is to rewire the reversing horn but to a switch on the console. That way I can choose to operate it or not. It doesn't become one of those bloody annoying things that screams at people who aren't there at ungodly hours.
On the whole, things are looking promising. The biggest issue I have is with cutting through the environmentally friendly bullshit. As I've said before and it is a very unpopular argument, solar and wind power are the biggest most steaming piles of bullshit I have ever encountered. I have a 5W solar panel that I have played around with and the amount of power generated wouldn't light a fart let alone a light bulb. Years ago I was suckered into buying a solar panel after listening to the environmental bullshit. I wired it up to charge a flip phone and left it hooked up in a sunny place for a week. At the end of the week, the phone had enough power to operate it for a massive 15 minutes. Let's just say I was distinctly unimpressed. Solar and wind power just don't produce any worthwhile power but let's see who the proponents of solar and wind power are shall we? Impressionable students and salesmen actively trying to sell the crap. Now you know why it doesn't work!
Today was one of those grey, miserable days that threatened and delivered on its threat to rain on everything. What with that and the darkness that comes with rain, nothing was actually achieved on the bus other than to put my latest bus purchases onboard for later use. Last night or this morning, I had an epiphany. I'd previously decided to put the barrels sideways because the ribs would act as stabilisers. Without the ribs as stabilisers I have to put stabilisers. I considered things like plastic door wedges etc but ruled them out as too small. Then I realised brackets would probably work. If the brackets are snug to the sides of the barrel then the barrel should not slop about.
Lying in the yard from demolition of the hillbilly construction was a 14 inch bracket. As it is strengthened with folds, I picked it up and failed totally to bend it. Thus, 14 inch brackets were added to my shopping list. Clearly today was a shopping day - it just wasn't fit to do anything else!
The first port of call was the local Barnyard flea market where there was a CB kiosk. Those with longer memories will recall that on my trip out with the bus a few days ago, the flexible CB aerial was snapped off by a low hanging tree. Incidentally, it was that tree's turn to meet its maker yesterday morning. For days I had been plotting my revenge on that tree but had been too tired after work to be bothered. Yesterday however, m'lady had somebody in to plough the ground for crops. This is a homestead, after all! On its way out, the tractor clearly had encountered the tree and had snapped it off. Problem solved! It would however have been better timed if the tree had not been snapped off before I went to work. I had to go to the immense effort of getting out of my car to move the corpse before I could exit on my way to work.
Thus the first purchase was a longer CB aerial that I will install after I exit the property and remove before I enter the property! After that it was on to Tractor Supply. There, I found 8 more brackets, some chain that would support 450lb (15 gallons of water is about 125lbs) and some steel cable fasteners that looked idea to secure one end of the chain. The other end can be secured with my U bolts. With the length of the U of the U bolt, they can also be used to tighten the chain.
There are several tasks to be completed this week - the first being the electrical breaker box. Then there are the luggage restraints in the back closet and finally the grey water barrels. The fresh water barrel does not currently exist. Though I bought 3 barrels, they were all used and thus unsuitable for potable water. I'll do the fittings for a fresh water barrel but will have to wait until I am near a U-Line supplier that actually has new barrels in stock.
I've been thinking one way and another about the battery system and the ventillation system. Although I looked into installing a smaller 12v battery, I think my original idea was probably best. That idea was just to use tiny dedicated rechargeable lithium battery packs at $8 each. I figure 4 or 5 is all I'll probably need to power my tablet and phone over a few days without power.
The solar fan is something I have investigated. There are several around but judging from what people seem to be saying, it's pot luck as to whether or not they actually work. Truth be told, the message coming across from all this solar and wind stuff is that it's very expensive. It's an idealistic thing that really isn't financially worthwhile. As an example, I could spend three or four hundred dollars on a set of solar panels plus about the same on batteries to get the same amount of power I'd get out of an 800w generator that I can get for $100. Given that I just don't have any real use for electricity with my butane stove, an 800W generator seems a trifle excessive! A 400W generator seems more realistic but such generators seem very hard to find.
For the moment, the solar fan seems to be unavailable. The next thing I looked at was wind-powered extraction fans. Those seem to be massively expensive and available only in Britain though. There are some attic fans available but they're too tall. I don't want to raise the operational height of the bus beyond the three inches of the front vent. The alternative is a small computer fan and a battery or perhaps some kind of roof vent. Perhaps some form of anodised aluminum tubing could be used to draw air out by convection. That would seem to be the simplest and most environmentally friendly option with the bonus that it might even work during the night.
Plans to replace the top flashers with metal blanks still exist as does eventually a plan for a tow hook. There are quite a few underbus plans. One is to put a second video camera and another is to rewire the reversing horn but to a switch on the console. That way I can choose to operate it or not. It doesn't become one of those bloody annoying things that screams at people who aren't there at ungodly hours.
On the whole, things are looking promising. The biggest issue I have is with cutting through the environmentally friendly bullshit. As I've said before and it is a very unpopular argument, solar and wind power are the biggest most steaming piles of bullshit I have ever encountered. I have a 5W solar panel that I have played around with and the amount of power generated wouldn't light a fart let alone a light bulb. Years ago I was suckered into buying a solar panel after listening to the environmental bullshit. I wired it up to charge a flip phone and left it hooked up in a sunny place for a week. At the end of the week, the phone had enough power to operate it for a massive 15 minutes. Let's just say I was distinctly unimpressed. Solar and wind power just don't produce any worthwhile power but let's see who the proponents of solar and wind power are shall we? Impressionable students and salesmen actively trying to sell the crap. Now you know why it doesn't work!
Monday, February 29, 2016
What is that fuzzy plug?
Yesterday I posted a slightly fuzzy photo of my new inlet in the side of the bus. Many of you will not have seen a connector such as that before. There's a reason for that - it's not sold in Lowes (hiss, spit) or Home Depot (cough). It is designated as a Nema 6-30I.
The Nema designation means that it's an inlet (hence the I) and will handle 30A at 250v. Unlike the normal Nema connectors used in the US (Nema 5-15), this is a twist-lock connector. Now the twist lock means that when the connector is inserted, it can be twisted and locked into place. This has the upside that it won't fall out but the downside that it's easier to damage the inlet etc by simply tripping over the power cord.
On most RVs etc the connector used is the TT30 connector such as the connector I installed in m'lady's front yard. Here we get to the nitty-gritty! Hunting around I could not locate a TT30 inlet for less than $70. Thus I went for a different connector. It makes no realistic difference. It'll work just the same. The only difference is that if I have to replace the cord then I'll have to build my own cord like I have been. I can't use off-the-shelf cords.
The upside of off-the-shelf cords is that they're available at most RV outlets. The downside is that they're sold at huge prices. Cords are available secondhand (probably red hot too) but would you trust a cord of unknown capacity? I won't trust anything electrical or electronic that's secondhand. I've seen too many secondhand electrics and electronics bursting into flames.
A subsidiary upside of having a bespoke connection is that because it's non standard, it's not as desirable to those that would wish to steal cables. Now I'm not thinking of a masked bandit in a black and red striped sweater with a sack labelled "swag" over his shoulder but I am thinking of less scrupulous individuals that "forget" their RV cord and "borrow" somebody else's cord but never return it.
I can see a day when RVs will largely not have cables any more. Look at it like this - at $2.50 a foot for 30A cable - the cables are just ridiculously expensive. The standard RV cable is about 50 feet. That represents about $75 of investment just lying on the ground for somebody else to pick up and walk away with. If they figure they can get a bottle of beer out of it, they figure it's been a good day's work. Heavens I've even heard of people's house air-conditioners being stolen and they weigh up to a ton!
With the rising price of copper and the almost static cost of generators, there's going to be a convergence. It will soon be cheaper to slip a $300 generator under an RV than to put a power cord. I don't really see solar and wind power as being worthwhile.
Investigating solar power, to produce the 10A at 120v needed to power a microwave directly, I'd need 1200W of power. Solar panels are $1 per watt wich does not mean that I'd need $1200 of panels. Because of the poor light at times I'd most likely need $2500 of panels just to run the microwave directly at midday.
Batteries seem like a good idea but the cheapest deep cycle battery gives 100ah of power which is a misnomer because you're only supposed to take a maximum of 55% out of a battery before the battery gets damaged. Thus a $90 100AH battery is about $2 per amp hour or 17c per watt hour.
In order to run a microwave for 15 minutes (thinking about the lowest power microwave in Walmart that takes 15 minutes to cook a plate from frozen and which coincidentally rusts to bits in 2 years), 300 watt hours of power would be needed at 10A. Now those two factors are very important. Remembering the 10% power loss from using an inverter (and ignoring the $300 cost of a 2KW inverter), 100A at 12v would be needed for 15 minutes. Most 12v batteries can't discharge more than 20A for more than a few seconds without getting dangerously hot. To be safe, think about 10A. This means 10 batteries in parallel, each weighing 50lbs would be needed to power a microwave. That's 500lbs of battery.
How much would a system cost that could power a microwave? Well, $900 in batteries, $1200 in solar panels, $300 inverter plus whatever I haven't thought of. That's a minimum of $2400. Of course if you went for lithium batteries, you'd need less batteries and be carrying less weight but be paying 20 times more for the batteries. EG a 300ah lithium battery is about $3500 and has a maximum constant discharge of about 50A.
So, the cheapest form of cooking power is a plug-in for electrical operation. The cheapest plug is a Nema 6-30. But cheaper even than carrying a generator is a portable gas cooker with butane tanks just like you'd use for camping!
The Nema designation means that it's an inlet (hence the I) and will handle 30A at 250v. Unlike the normal Nema connectors used in the US (Nema 5-15), this is a twist-lock connector. Now the twist lock means that when the connector is inserted, it can be twisted and locked into place. This has the upside that it won't fall out but the downside that it's easier to damage the inlet etc by simply tripping over the power cord.
On most RVs etc the connector used is the TT30 connector such as the connector I installed in m'lady's front yard. Here we get to the nitty-gritty! Hunting around I could not locate a TT30 inlet for less than $70. Thus I went for a different connector. It makes no realistic difference. It'll work just the same. The only difference is that if I have to replace the cord then I'll have to build my own cord like I have been. I can't use off-the-shelf cords.
The upside of off-the-shelf cords is that they're available at most RV outlets. The downside is that they're sold at huge prices. Cords are available secondhand (probably red hot too) but would you trust a cord of unknown capacity? I won't trust anything electrical or electronic that's secondhand. I've seen too many secondhand electrics and electronics bursting into flames.
A subsidiary upside of having a bespoke connection is that because it's non standard, it's not as desirable to those that would wish to steal cables. Now I'm not thinking of a masked bandit in a black and red striped sweater with a sack labelled "swag" over his shoulder but I am thinking of less scrupulous individuals that "forget" their RV cord and "borrow" somebody else's cord but never return it.
I can see a day when RVs will largely not have cables any more. Look at it like this - at $2.50 a foot for 30A cable - the cables are just ridiculously expensive. The standard RV cable is about 50 feet. That represents about $75 of investment just lying on the ground for somebody else to pick up and walk away with. If they figure they can get a bottle of beer out of it, they figure it's been a good day's work. Heavens I've even heard of people's house air-conditioners being stolen and they weigh up to a ton!
With the rising price of copper and the almost static cost of generators, there's going to be a convergence. It will soon be cheaper to slip a $300 generator under an RV than to put a power cord. I don't really see solar and wind power as being worthwhile.
Investigating solar power, to produce the 10A at 120v needed to power a microwave directly, I'd need 1200W of power. Solar panels are $1 per watt wich does not mean that I'd need $1200 of panels. Because of the poor light at times I'd most likely need $2500 of panels just to run the microwave directly at midday.
Batteries seem like a good idea but the cheapest deep cycle battery gives 100ah of power which is a misnomer because you're only supposed to take a maximum of 55% out of a battery before the battery gets damaged. Thus a $90 100AH battery is about $2 per amp hour or 17c per watt hour.
In order to run a microwave for 15 minutes (thinking about the lowest power microwave in Walmart that takes 15 minutes to cook a plate from frozen and which coincidentally rusts to bits in 2 years), 300 watt hours of power would be needed at 10A. Now those two factors are very important. Remembering the 10% power loss from using an inverter (and ignoring the $300 cost of a 2KW inverter), 100A at 12v would be needed for 15 minutes. Most 12v batteries can't discharge more than 20A for more than a few seconds without getting dangerously hot. To be safe, think about 10A. This means 10 batteries in parallel, each weighing 50lbs would be needed to power a microwave. That's 500lbs of battery.
How much would a system cost that could power a microwave? Well, $900 in batteries, $1200 in solar panels, $300 inverter plus whatever I haven't thought of. That's a minimum of $2400. Of course if you went for lithium batteries, you'd need less batteries and be carrying less weight but be paying 20 times more for the batteries. EG a 300ah lithium battery is about $3500 and has a maximum constant discharge of about 50A.
So, the cheapest form of cooking power is a plug-in for electrical operation. The cheapest plug is a Nema 6-30. But cheaper even than carrying a generator is a portable gas cooker with butane tanks just like you'd use for camping!
Monday, December 21, 2015
Interesting!
I looked today more closely at my tyres. It seems that somebody has put 11R 22.5 on the back but 10R 22.5 on the front. Checking the inormation panel inside, both front and back rims are identical. Thus, both sets of tyres should be identical. This is very odd. I'll bet the guy that sold me the bus just got a mate to throw on the cheapest tyres that would vaguely fit.
Indeed, looking at the tyre sizing chart, it seems that I probably have 20x7.50 rims though I thought the panel had 20x70 written on it. The rims might not be original anyway. Looking again at the chart, there's a surprising degree of tolerance between tyre sizes. It sounds bizarre that I can fit a 9r22.5, 10r22.5 or 11r22.5 on the same set of rims.
I didn't get anything actually done on the bus today. What with grey, depressing weather that was also pretty cold and Christmas shopping to boot, as well as a headache caused by the noxious perfumes inflicted upon the public by stores I really didn't feel like doing anything much. Indeed, I intended to buy a big bag of sugar to use for sugar blasting. Being Christmas and therefore sugar buzz time, there were no big bags of sugar left.
The new bathroom vanity top still needs to be painted but its a bit cold to be doing paintwork at the moment. Not just to be outside doing the painting but because the paint just won't dry very well in these temperatures. A look inside the hillbilly cable compartment showed it to have cobwebs. That's not welcome to the international President of the arachnophobes club!
Thinking more toward power options it looks costly whichever way I go. Solar panels are desirable though I'm wondering whether a wind option might be more economical. It would be tiresome to keep erecting and dismantling but would potentially offer more power while maintaining the non motorhome external appearance of my bus due to its removability.
Indeed, looking at the tyre sizing chart, it seems that I probably have 20x7.50 rims though I thought the panel had 20x70 written on it. The rims might not be original anyway. Looking again at the chart, there's a surprising degree of tolerance between tyre sizes. It sounds bizarre that I can fit a 9r22.5, 10r22.5 or 11r22.5 on the same set of rims.
The new bathroom vanity top still needs to be painted but its a bit cold to be doing paintwork at the moment. Not just to be outside doing the painting but because the paint just won't dry very well in these temperatures. A look inside the hillbilly cable compartment showed it to have cobwebs. That's not welcome to the international President of the arachnophobes club!
Thinking more toward power options it looks costly whichever way I go. Solar panels are desirable though I'm wondering whether a wind option might be more economical. It would be tiresome to keep erecting and dismantling but would potentially offer more power while maintaining the non motorhome external appearance of my bus due to its removability.
Thursday, August 20, 2015
An electrifying decision!
Again, it was another exhausting day down the salt mines. So much so that after work I didn't even glance at my bus. I'm so glad I did so much over the summer!
Remaining are some minor things inside the bus that I can take care of this weekend plus the electrics and plumbing. As far as plumbing goes, dealing with waste water is easy - gravity takes it down to a tank I'll place under the bus (or a series of tanks, even).
As far as electrics go, I've been mulling over all the options. Those considered so far.
1. Plug the bus into a campsite power supply and have 4x120v sockets. No water heater, no electric pumps. This is by far the cheapest option.
2. Put a generator with the plugin option. Downside, diesel generators start at $2,000. Gasoline generators start at $100 but to get one big enough to power my microwave or kettle, its $300.
3. Put a wind generator. This is an interesting, off the wall option. It seems wind generators generally have a poor reputation at small sizes and low altitudes. That's without mentioning they start at around $300 for something that's just an electric motor with a fan blade attached.
4. Use batteries. There's quite some disagreement about how many are needed. One person will swear that my microwave will set the batteries on fire while somebody else claims to have done it with no problems. And batteries start at $80 apiece.
The general route map I've worked out is this...
1. Go for option 1 initially.
2. Slowly build up toward option 4 with plenty full load testing. During this phase, batteries will be charged while plugged in .
3. Investigate solar and wind options.
4. Investigate generator options.
The problem with solar is flexible solar panels are around $189 for 100w. Wind is a different problem altogether that I have not fully researched. It's looking as though the available wind turbines just aren't that great. But a 100w panel would charge a 100ah battery in 12 hours of full sunlight. This means that with partial sun I'd need 2 or 3 panels per battery. Assuming 4 batteries would be fine, that's 10 panels at $189 each for a grand total of $1890. That would pay for a $300 gasoline generator and 700 gallons of gasoline to power it!
Given that I'm unlikely to be boondocking that much, solar power seems just a little wasteful. Wind power looks more promising especially since the wind also blows at night. Backed by the $100 generator, that might be an acceptable solution. As far as I can tell, solar just seems to be somewhat of a scam. It works but it's uneconomical and the greens have scammed everybody into thinking its viable when honest cost analysis says its not.
Wind has three options. The first is a vertical axis turbine that I raise on a pole after parking. The second is a horizontal axis turbine that I raise on a pole after parking. The third is an array of plastic tubing on the roof as a wind collector, channelling the wind down plastic tubing to a smaller, more powerful turbine underneath the bus.
Remaining are some minor things inside the bus that I can take care of this weekend plus the electrics and plumbing. As far as plumbing goes, dealing with waste water is easy - gravity takes it down to a tank I'll place under the bus (or a series of tanks, even).
As far as electrics go, I've been mulling over all the options. Those considered so far.
1. Plug the bus into a campsite power supply and have 4x120v sockets. No water heater, no electric pumps. This is by far the cheapest option.
2. Put a generator with the plugin option. Downside, diesel generators start at $2,000. Gasoline generators start at $100 but to get one big enough to power my microwave or kettle, its $300.
3. Put a wind generator. This is an interesting, off the wall option. It seems wind generators generally have a poor reputation at small sizes and low altitudes. That's without mentioning they start at around $300 for something that's just an electric motor with a fan blade attached.
4. Use batteries. There's quite some disagreement about how many are needed. One person will swear that my microwave will set the batteries on fire while somebody else claims to have done it with no problems. And batteries start at $80 apiece.
The general route map I've worked out is this...
1. Go for option 1 initially.
2. Slowly build up toward option 4 with plenty full load testing. During this phase, batteries will be charged while plugged in .
3. Investigate solar and wind options.
4. Investigate generator options.
The problem with solar is flexible solar panels are around $189 for 100w. Wind is a different problem altogether that I have not fully researched. It's looking as though the available wind turbines just aren't that great. But a 100w panel would charge a 100ah battery in 12 hours of full sunlight. This means that with partial sun I'd need 2 or 3 panels per battery. Assuming 4 batteries would be fine, that's 10 panels at $189 each for a grand total of $1890. That would pay for a $300 gasoline generator and 700 gallons of gasoline to power it!
Given that I'm unlikely to be boondocking that much, solar power seems just a little wasteful. Wind power looks more promising especially since the wind also blows at night. Backed by the $100 generator, that might be an acceptable solution. As far as I can tell, solar just seems to be somewhat of a scam. It works but it's uneconomical and the greens have scammed everybody into thinking its viable when honest cost analysis says its not.
Wind has three options. The first is a vertical axis turbine that I raise on a pole after parking. The second is a horizontal axis turbine that I raise on a pole after parking. The third is an array of plastic tubing on the roof as a wind collector, channelling the wind down plastic tubing to a smaller, more powerful turbine underneath the bus.
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
Purple rain
I never meant to cause you any sorrow
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain
And so sang the artist formally known as Prince which gets us rather neatly to today's first achievement. Purple paint! Today I put purple paint on the ceiling of the galley or rather, a second coat of purple paint. The white undercoat was showing through in places. A second coat should see that gone from view. The walls also needed some recoating and the new drawers had a coat on the fronts. This latex paint isn't very durable and I've already had to touch up some areas.
Needless to say, there have been a few drops of purple rain from the ceiling and I did run my head into a freshly painted patch. I'll have purple hair for the next few hours! It always washes out pretty easily.
Earlier today, I had a trip to Lowe's. Yesterday on my way back from my voluntary work, I also stopped off at Lowe's. It's nice to wander around the electrical aisle to see what's there. I'm trying to decide how to approach the electrical system. Thus far, these are the ideas....
1. 3 x 110v sockets in the kitchen for a 110v fridge, microwave and one other appliance.
2. 12v or even 5v for two USB sockets in the bedroom and on the othger side of the galley.
3. 12v led lighting throughout or no lighting bar movable led lanterns.
4. Electric water heater. This could be a small (1 gallon) gravity tank above the handbasin or shower.
5. Underbody hot tank. This needn't be more than 5 or 10 gallons and could be heated directly by solar panels.
It's all very much of a mishmash because I've not really decided on my direction. I could go solely solar with no plugin whatsoever. Basically, a totally boondocking solution. I could go with a totally plug in solution that would eliminate batteries and inverters and just use a small generator for boondocking. Wind hasn't featured in my deliberations though perhaps it should.
Reading about people's wind power solutions with RVs, they seem to be universally disappointing. I'm not sure why though - whether they're expecting more from wind than it can deliver it whether there are problems of scale and location. I'm not even sure what kind of power consumption they have.
Solar seems popular though it is expensive. A single 100w panel will cost around $100 and will produce 6 - 10 hours of power at around 50w average. Thus, a 100w panel will produce about 50watt hours of power per day. Putting that into a 100ah 12v battery would put about 4.15ah into the 12v battery. That's not really practical!
I'm thinking that I should have a solution initially that has no battery and which uses solely external electricity. I'm beginning to see why people use gas for cooking and water heating. I must admit that a gas solution does look attractive!
So, after painting the ceiling and the drawer fronts, my next task was to work more on painting the toilet. This will take several painting sessions. There are some areas I can't really reach with a brush but I'll do my best as always.
It's getting rapidly to the point where I will have to tidy the galley, to free it of construction debris. Indeed, its approaching usable! Question is, where to put everything? I guess I need to plug on, put up the closet chain and put the batwing doors together. That should reduce the quantity of stuff yet more.
After the toilet, while waiting for the paint to dry, I had a good knobbing session in the galley. Put that dirty mind away! This is what I meant..
I put the knobs on almost all of my drawers. The last knob on the other side of the bus proved problematic. It's bolt was too short so I need another bolt. Measuring it, it seems to be 3.9 to 4mm diameter which probably means its a 5/32 or it could be an M4 since the knob was made in China!
There are 3 varieties of knob. Two are close enough to be the same but packaged under different labels. There are 2 different sizes. Basically, its what I got from Ace Hardware's bargain bin the other day. Only a real plonker would buy stuff at full price!
Returning to my labors, I touched up a lot of the white paint and turned the kitchenette counted the right way up. The smooth side is now down. Now the idea had been to put self adhesive vinyl tiles on top. The new idea is to get thick, vinyl tablecloths as long as they can reliably be as long as my countertops then to attach Velcro strips and simply Velcro them into place. That seems to me to be much easier and cheaper as well as more instantly replaceable than vinyl tiles.
Putting yet more paint on the toilet, I noted that two more very brief painting sessions will see the whole toilet painted. The bathroom vanity top needs but one painting session before it gets screwed into place or rather, after it ius screwed down.
In essence, there are but three tasks remaining. To put up the closet chain, to build the saloon doors and to screw all the countertops down. Then it's all electrics, water and attending to the front door locking/unlocking mechanism.
Trying my cutlery tray into place in what will be the cutlery drawer showed it to be a little wide. Darn! Still, it was only ever a cheap thing. I can do better!
I never meant to cause you any pain
I only wanted to one time to see you laughing
I only wanted to see you
Laughing in the purple rain
And so sang the artist formally known as Prince which gets us rather neatly to today's first achievement. Purple paint! Today I put purple paint on the ceiling of the galley or rather, a second coat of purple paint. The white undercoat was showing through in places. A second coat should see that gone from view. The walls also needed some recoating and the new drawers had a coat on the fronts. This latex paint isn't very durable and I've already had to touch up some areas.
Needless to say, there have been a few drops of purple rain from the ceiling and I did run my head into a freshly painted patch. I'll have purple hair for the next few hours! It always washes out pretty easily.
Earlier today, I had a trip to Lowe's. Yesterday on my way back from my voluntary work, I also stopped off at Lowe's. It's nice to wander around the electrical aisle to see what's there. I'm trying to decide how to approach the electrical system. Thus far, these are the ideas....
1. 3 x 110v sockets in the kitchen for a 110v fridge, microwave and one other appliance.
2. 12v or even 5v for two USB sockets in the bedroom and on the othger side of the galley.
3. 12v led lighting throughout or no lighting bar movable led lanterns.
4. Electric water heater. This could be a small (1 gallon) gravity tank above the handbasin or shower.
5. Underbody hot tank. This needn't be more than 5 or 10 gallons and could be heated directly by solar panels.
It's all very much of a mishmash because I've not really decided on my direction. I could go solely solar with no plugin whatsoever. Basically, a totally boondocking solution. I could go with a totally plug in solution that would eliminate batteries and inverters and just use a small generator for boondocking. Wind hasn't featured in my deliberations though perhaps it should.
Reading about people's wind power solutions with RVs, they seem to be universally disappointing. I'm not sure why though - whether they're expecting more from wind than it can deliver it whether there are problems of scale and location. I'm not even sure what kind of power consumption they have.
Solar seems popular though it is expensive. A single 100w panel will cost around $100 and will produce 6 - 10 hours of power at around 50w average. Thus, a 100w panel will produce about 50watt hours of power per day. Putting that into a 100ah 12v battery would put about 4.15ah into the 12v battery. That's not really practical!
I'm thinking that I should have a solution initially that has no battery and which uses solely external electricity. I'm beginning to see why people use gas for cooking and water heating. I must admit that a gas solution does look attractive!
So, after painting the ceiling and the drawer fronts, my next task was to work more on painting the toilet. This will take several painting sessions. There are some areas I can't really reach with a brush but I'll do my best as always.
It's getting rapidly to the point where I will have to tidy the galley, to free it of construction debris. Indeed, its approaching usable! Question is, where to put everything? I guess I need to plug on, put up the closet chain and put the batwing doors together. That should reduce the quantity of stuff yet more.
After the toilet, while waiting for the paint to dry, I had a good knobbing session in the galley. Put that dirty mind away! This is what I meant..
I put the knobs on almost all of my drawers. The last knob on the other side of the bus proved problematic. It's bolt was too short so I need another bolt. Measuring it, it seems to be 3.9 to 4mm diameter which probably means its a 5/32 or it could be an M4 since the knob was made in China!
There are 3 varieties of knob. Two are close enough to be the same but packaged under different labels. There are 2 different sizes. Basically, its what I got from Ace Hardware's bargain bin the other day. Only a real plonker would buy stuff at full price!
Returning to my labors, I touched up a lot of the white paint and turned the kitchenette counted the right way up. The smooth side is now down. Now the idea had been to put self adhesive vinyl tiles on top. The new idea is to get thick, vinyl tablecloths as long as they can reliably be as long as my countertops then to attach Velcro strips and simply Velcro them into place. That seems to me to be much easier and cheaper as well as more instantly replaceable than vinyl tiles.
Putting yet more paint on the toilet, I noted that two more very brief painting sessions will see the whole toilet painted. The bathroom vanity top needs but one painting session before it gets screwed into place or rather, after it ius screwed down.
In essence, there are but three tasks remaining. To put up the closet chain, to build the saloon doors and to screw all the countertops down. Then it's all electrics, water and attending to the front door locking/unlocking mechanism.
Trying my cutlery tray into place in what will be the cutlery drawer showed it to be a little wide. Darn! Still, it was only ever a cheap thing. I can do better!
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