Solar Plans..

[Aree Soothsayer]

Cash is king. You're probably better off saving it for something more important.
Those of us doing grid-tie have a few $thousand to play with, and our investment in a house is far greater.
If you have a house, then generating income from it would be higher payback. Roommate or ADU, for instance.

A cost-effective portable PV system to handle device charging and lights, I can see would be worthwhile for your application.

Mooching off family who rents. I try to make up for it handling the tech.

 

[Forbisher]

Mooching off family who rents. I try to make up for it handling the tech.

How much is the electric bill per month?

 

[Aree Soothsayer]

How much is the electric bill per month?

They don't tell me. XD Oh and as for phone charging.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079D9MT1Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Forbisher]

They don't tell me.

If they rent they could not install a grid tie system anyway.
I doubt if the landlord would approve of adding solar.

 

[Hedges]

Oh and as for phone charging.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B079D9MT1Y/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Convenient and portable. But $40/10W or $4/W.
Check Craigslist and you should find used glass panels in the 50W to 400W range, somewhere between $0.10 and $0.50/W.
An example from SanTan is $50 for a 250W panel, $0.20/W
That plus an MPPT charge controller would charge a 12V battery, which could charge devices.
Me, I might add a switching voltage regulator to drop it to 12V and use to directly power 12V chargers.

Used SanTan 250W Solar Panel | SanTan Solar

store.santansolar.com

 

[Aree Soothsayer]

I got it about a year ago.

 

[solar-e-bike-Derek]

Aree, I've built something like this but from existing parts + some DIY elements and have gone on several bike camping trips with it. I use my setup to recharge my bike battery and a few small electronics. My first iteration of this was was super simple and required no understanding of wiring and stuff because I just used a Jackery, which met my needs. My next version is going to be much more DIY and I'm considering building my own battery set-up this time. I think there is a sweet spot between backpacking minimalism and motor vehicle camping that you can hit with a solar trailer, and would be glad to give you advice on what I use and how I've sized my solar needs. If you've already built yours, I'd be curious to see what you did.

That big awkward looking thing on the roof rack is a Kamprite tentcot, which added to the "camper" feel, but as you can see is kind of hard to carry. I had to build a DIY roof rack out of aluminum crutches to hold the tentcot and solar. My solar panel is mounted to the carry bag for the Kamprite. For my next one, I'm ditching the Kamprite and going with a lightweight camping tent that fits inside the trailer, upgrading to 160W solar and building the whole thing from scratch.

 

[curiouscarbon]

Aree, I've built something like this but from existing parts + some DIY elements and have gone on several bike camping trips with it. I use my setup to recharge my bike battery and a few small electronics. My first iteration of this was was super simple and required no understanding of wiring and stuff because I just used a Jackery, which met my needs. My next version is going to be much more DIY and I'm considering building my own battery set-up this time. I think there is a sweet spot between backpacking minimalism and motor vehicle camping that you can hit with a solar trailer, and would be glad to give you advice on what I use and how I've sized my solar needs. If you've already built yours, I'd be curious to see what you did.

That big awkward looking thing on the roof rack is a Kamprite tentcot, which added to the "camper" feel, but as you can see is kind of hard to carry. I had to build a DIY roof rack out of aluminum crutches to hold the tentcot and solar. My solar panel is mounted to the carry bag for the Kamprite. For my next one, I'm ditching the Kamprite and going with a lightweight camping tent that fits inside the trailer, upgrading to 160W solar and building the whole thing from scratch.

awesome work!!

 

[Aree Soothsayer]

Man imagine my surprise when this came to life.
However a recent change in living location made my shopping trip change from 1/3 mile round trip to 2.4m, half of it uphill. Including one block rather steep.
A trip whipes me out, my age has stolen my stamina and I can't seem to build more.
I'm just trying to figure out how to get an Rv and boondock.
Not going well at all.

 

[solar-e-bike-Derek]

Man imagine my surprise when this came to life.
However a recent change in living location made my shopping trip change from 1/3 mile round trip to 2.4m, half of it uphill. Including one block rather steep.
A trip whipes me out, my age has stolen my stamina and I can't seem to build more.
I'm just trying to figure out how to get an Rv and boondock.
Not going well at all.

Good luck with it!