RVing with Pets: to park in the sun or not to park in the sun

[70000salmon]

My daughter is in love with your cat! How cute...
That vehicle is much larger than I was picturing. It should have room enough on the roof for 1000W solar... and it should be insulated well enough to install a nice inverter AC rooftop unit. It could work.
When you said van, I was picturing a church van, or a conversion... that is a camper conversion. Nice.
What engine is in it?

Aww thanks. Her name is Fang. I will get back with more engine details. I'm not sure. But my starter battery and deep cell are connected with a switch if that is useful info. I won't be driving much at all though this summer. After hearing from @ghostwriter66 about the small Toshiba air conditioners this seems more promising. I don't want to spend over $2000 though with battery etc. Not sure if that's reasonable or what. The current ac on the roof is ancient and it says 13,500 BTU with 115vac rating and many other amp counts I don't quite understand. From what I gather it's not the most energy efficient option lol. I've never ran it before either and it's definitely dirty.

@ghostwriter66 , I do have a question as to why you use 4 x100aH 6v batteries as opposed to 2 x 12v batteries. Math/physics are not my strong suit but I am trying to learn. I think it's to do with series connecting them vs. Parallel?
Also, would that solar array have leftover capacity for laptop/phone charging in evening plus maybe radio do you think?
Thank you.
Also for more pictures, I am "message_temple" on Instagram.

 

[70000salmon]

@Freep So from my understanding, I could power this on high from a 100aH 12v battery for 9 hrs and it would consume 41.4 amps. That pretty much the limit with one battery. I still need to work out the formulas for the charging I need done per evening, plus radio and fan/cooling unit. That will give me a much better idea of how many batteries I need. I'm guessing more than one.

 

[70000salmon]

Rule of thumb is do not charge lithium iron phosphate batteries at below freezing temperatures. So storing at cold temperatures is ok, but in your heated camper might be better.

Enclosing the area under your camper sounds like a good solution for you. We had indoor/outdoor cats and they would have been fine with that setup.

Couldn't you technically charge a lithium battery over the winter if it's inside your camper, not only store it? Or are there safety concerns with charging a battery while it's inside a camper as opposed to it staying in a battery box or on the underside of a camper?

 

[Freep]

@Freep So from my understanding, I could power this on high from a 100aH 12v battery for 9 hrs and it would consume 41.4 amps. That pretty much the limit with one battery. I still need to work out the formulas for the charging I need done per evening, plus radio and fan/cooling unit. That will give me a much better idea of how many batteries I need. I'm guessing more than one.

I seriously doubt you'd need to run it on high. Keep in mind that depending on your solar panels and charger you will be able to run the swamp cooler *straight from the panels on a sunny day after the battery is charged. I have two 150 Watt panels and they finish with bulk charging of my two 100ah lifelines in about 4 hours.

When I get into float territory and it's still sunny I turn on the electric water heater or the fridge to use the electricity the controller would otherwise dump.


*straight is a figure of speech here. You'd still be going through your controller, DC panels, etc...

 

[eskermel]

Yes, if it will be above freezing in your camper, you can certainly charge it. I am not aware of any safety concerns regarding charging in a camper. Many campers have batteries inside the camper, as mine does. The only concern you should have is to make sure your LFP batteries do not charge if the temperature in your camper should drop below freezing. Several threads in the forum discuss low temperature care of these batteries. Do a search.

 

[Pizzocchero]

Thank you! I agree about the shade. 200w will be very minimalistic yes but as long as it gives me some independence while stationary that will be okay. Like I said, i just want something for the basics of electronic charging. I can do without a toaster, that is my big compromise. I need just a small fan and power for charging laptop and phone, maybe play the 120v radio sometimes. It is not so much for traveling as it is to have simply more than I would without any power, which will be the case very soon next week until I can order something fast.

 

[Pizzocchero]

Hi 70000salmon
On my RV, I did mount a similar solar system:
2 panels 130W each, 75V 25A mppt charger controller, 1KW pure sine inverter.
I can confirm that, for small loads as laptop,
Mobile charger, small TV etc no problems occours. This system can not handle heavy loads as fridge or air conditioners...
As long as the battery capabilities can do.

 

[70000salmon]

Hi 70000salmon
On my RV, I did mount a similar solar system:
2 panels 130W each, 75V 25A mppt charger controller, 1KW pure sine inverter.
I can confirm that, for small loads as laptop,
Mobile charger, small TV etc no problems occours. This system can not handle heavy loads as fridge or air conditioners...
As long as the battery capabilities can do.

Thanks for sharing. Were those mono or poly crystalline panels? I have not heard of 130w each yet but that sounds good. What type of battery set up do you have?

 

[Pizzocchero]

Thanks for sharing. Were those mono or poly crystalline panels? I have not heard of 130w each yet but that sounds good. What type of battery set up do you have?

Hi.
The panels, i Guess, are policrystal (Square elements) from china. My battery Is Agm 100Ah C20 Five Years old. I'm planning to replace this battery (that Is so weak) with a lifepo4 pack + BMS...That's why I registri myself to this forum

 

[ghostwriter66]

Wow thank you. This is very cool.

Pun intended ... LOL