diy solar

diy solar

Intro Seasonal NPS Housing and Shooting Range

Jbilljames

New Member
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
6
My name is Bill and I live on a 120 acre family ranch in the Central Coast area of California. We are located on the easternmost border of the Pinnacles National Park. The park has a extremely hard time getting the seasonal and permanent workers needed to accomplish the various tasks. They have funding but not housing and as Will can attest it is prohibitively expensive to rent in this area. We had one fellow who lived in his Subaru Outback for 3 years. It’s a solution that few have the fortitude to stay with it.

So we decided to provide affordable rent to the employees and the response was immediate. The most immediate concern has been power. Even with a minimalist approach we have some hoops to jump through. We have to provide for 7 people by the end of the month. 5 permanent and two seasonal so far. With an electrical system that fraught with cowboy engineering. We have 4 people now in 3 RV’s sharing a 220v 30A with the well pump. Two RV’s are using shore power and without using any high watt-use appliances. They are consistently drawing 1A each according to my watt meter. The third RV is living off of battery and generator.

In addition I am a retired Navy Gunners Mate with 10 years experience as a Small Arms Trainer. We have opened up a portion of the ranch to NRA Trainers, Boy-scout gun training , and a local gun club that comes out once a month for pistol and long range rifle. Here I am looking at converting an old 5th wheel into a off grid classroom.

I’m putting together the 2000 watt 24V Off-grid system and use the Off-grid RV as my test subject. It’s one thing to do the math but its another thing to do the testing. Fortunately the people staying here are as interested in solar as I am. Once I get some real numbers I will post my questions and comments. I will try to keep things concise to keep the flow going.

I have posted before but this is a proper intro.

B
 
Welcome to the forums Bill!

The first thing that comes to mind is you should ask Will if he'd be interested in a training swap since your both interested in things the other is an expert at. But even if he's not up for that, looking forward to your questions. You'll see a lot of stuff people have done with RVs, cargo containers, sheds, boats, etc. There's also my favorite, the FAQ section.
 
Thanks for the Welcome. I would love to swap some expertise with Will but he seems to be awfully busy. Thanks for FAQ suggestion.
 
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