Recent content by Zack R

The first place I'd start is where do you plan on going in the van (weather wise)? If you plan to camp in cold weather (below freezing) its likely the largest energy demand will come from the furnace. The thing about cold weather is that its easy to provide the heating energy with diesel or...

Have you looked into geothermal heat pumps? Could be an option since you will already be excavating to build the house and presumably the septic drainfield. I'd combine that with a nice wood stove (or two) for heating. Modern wood stoves burn clean and efficient compared to smoke dragons of...

When doing your power audit with the kill a watt on the 120VAC side you are also measuring the battery charger and possibly the refrigerator. If you have an absorption refrigerator it will use something like 300-400W for heating when plugged in, but only 10-20W on propane only. I'd do a...

Are you planning to run an inverter at all? If so I'd recommend getting that into your design from the start so that the cables and fuses are sized correctly. Source - My truck camper solar build initially did not include an inverter so everything is 6AWG. Now that I have an inverter (Victron...

I'm brand new to the forum but saw your question specific to your truck camper. Last spring I installed solar on my camper and it worked great for a month long trip in the summer, didn't plug into grid power once. In fact I never really plug into grid power anymore. I went with the following on...