Ok I'm just in the thinking process of this. I'm a single full time dad of 3 kids. We live in an apartment in south Alabama. I work at the apartment too. We went camping 2 weekends ago we had no equipment. Some let us set up with them. My likes loved it. The part I did not like was the heat. I sweated all night long in the tent. The next weekend I got a 10 man tent for us. I also got a a portable AC unit from work and picked up a 3000w power inverter from Harbor Freight to hook up to my 2013 Chrysler Town and Country van. AC unit was an 11000 BTU way bigger than what I needed I know. I am now looking for about a 5000 BTU air conditioner. Okay to get to what I am looking for help with. I am looking at getting a small enclosed trailer to haul camping gear. I would like to set this enclosed trailer up to run the 3000 watt power inverter off of solar panels. I would like to be able to run this through the night with out having to worry about running out of battery. How big of a battery pack do I need for this? How big of a solar panel pack do I need to run the battery pack? Also thinking if I got a smaller air conditioner unit to run good energy star one. Might would like to put a small refrigerator inside of the enclosed trailer. Any help or advice would be wonderful thank you in advance
Tent camping solar set up.
- Thread starter DerekC87
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I agree but I want the peace and quiet of soler. We go out in the wood. And will not like a generator running all night. The 3000w power running off the van 1/2 day Saturday for testing. All night for running AC not running Sunday day and then Sunday night for AC I was on a Monday morning. I will like to set this trailer up to spend up to a week in the woods with put leaving . that is just my idea.
mjbeam
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Just rough numbers, the 5000 btu cheap window units use around 400-450 watts or so. 400 watts for 24 hours is 9600 watt hours. The AC cycles on and off but with no insulation it will probably be running a lot. Let's take a guess and say it will be running 75% of the time, so that would be 7200 watt hours. So you will need enough solar panels to produce 7200 watt hours. They really only produce much power for around 5 hours of the day so you would need something like 1440 watts of panels. This is at 100% efficiency for everything which is unrealistic. So you may need closer to 2000 watts of panels. For batteries, you need enough to run the AC when the panels are not producing, about 19 hours which would be 7600 watt hours of batteries, or seven $950 Battleborn batteries. This is just totally spitballing the numbers.
You would need about a 3rd of that to only run the AC at night (8 hours). Except for batteries, Since no overlap between charging and using AC, batteries need to provide 400 watts for 8 hours, 3200 watt hours, this would require 3 batteries, a little more than a third of 7.
You would need about a 3rd of that to only run the AC at night (8 hours). Except for batteries, Since no overlap between charging and using AC, batteries need to provide 400 watts for 8 hours, 3200 watt hours, this would require 3 batteries, a little more than a third of 7.
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Thank you this is what I'm looking for.. I really want to try and do this. I know it does not seem worth it to most. But only running a 5000btu AC unit to sleep a small refrigerate may be a small tv for the kids and a little light for the night time work. People are running whole RVs and house off of this... Why to do at little a I need will it be so much. I'm just so lost in my thinking right now...
mjbeam
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I'm doing something similar for my work van but need the AC during the day. I can get 700 watts of panels on my van roof. Not sure how it is going to work but everything is ordered and coming in this week. Worst case I will have a backup power plant to keep my freezer and some lights running at home if the power goes out for an extended time.
I did a 5000 watt power inverter on a old retired ambulance I turned into a work truck. It had a 7.3 turbo diesel with a PTO voltage meter. It ran whole job sites with the truck a little above idle. Never tried anything with solar panels before but I'm very interested in all of this. It really trying to do this for the comfort of my kids while we enjoy camping
heirloom hamlet
life my way
I know you have a question and are only looking for data... I've had similar curious questions and wanted to know. In my opinion though, solar is not the answer to wanting to create such luxuries as off-grid A/C, TV and Refrigeration on such short-term experiences. I truly don't mean to be disrespectful and I do realize we are all different, but we are all also the same in some respects. Enjoying nature is something man has done for thousands of years without such comfort, and probably was better off for it. This could be a fantastic opportunity to show the kids and perhaps yourself the other side of the coin. The special time together in activities that are outside the norm, the toughness learned, experiencing dealing with calm and even boredom, not to mention valuable outdoor survival techniques are invaluable in life...and we're seeing lately might only become moreso in upcoming months and years.
Why not find a transitional balance instead of going to such extremes as aiming to recreate regular life in nature. For instance, planning camping trips in the right seasons and/or to the right places, designing the trailer for good airflow and movement, mentally planning to embrace some hardships with positivity and growing through it...while using solar for more attainable goals as running a small ice maker to fill coolers (as Will shows on his site), to run fans and charge small devices...may all be more feasible.
Sure don't mean to sound preachy, but we've all convenienced ourselves out of some of the good stuff in life. So finding a nice equilibrium between technology and comfort, and nature and discomfort can help us be more well rounded, metaphorically of course.
Solar power is the answer, but in a balanced and reasonable way.
Why not find a transitional balance instead of going to such extremes as aiming to recreate regular life in nature. For instance, planning camping trips in the right seasons and/or to the right places, designing the trailer for good airflow and movement, mentally planning to embrace some hardships with positivity and growing through it...while using solar for more attainable goals as running a small ice maker to fill coolers (as Will shows on his site), to run fans and charge small devices...may all be more feasible.
Sure don't mean to sound preachy, but we've all convenienced ourselves out of some of the good stuff in life. So finding a nice equilibrium between technology and comfort, and nature and discomfort can help us be more well rounded, metaphorically of course.
Solar power is the answer, but in a balanced and reasonable way.
We have taken a generator camping. We put it at the end of 100 foot cord, in a depression behind a large tree. Some of the newer generators are fairly quiet, but one should shop for low noise as a feature. Having batteries and inverter would allow you to shut down the generator at night. Solar on that scale is bulky and the sun is not always available as clouds and trees can take your solar output to 5% in hard shade.
We tent camped one night on the east side of Mobile Bay in July. I feel your pain.
We tent camped one night on the east side of Mobile Bay in July. I feel your pain.
You where right outside of my neck of the woods on Mobile bay. I keep my camping close to home for now because I'm a maintenance technician at an apartment complex and cannot be over an hour away from a phone call. I really do not want a generator unless it is for backup power. I would like to not be burning the gas from it. But it will be in my arsenal of camping equipment run everything I need. I think I will be going with somebody suggestion to try to build an insulated box for it to be in. But I will have solar even if it is for charging devices during the day and keeping stuff running during the day. Until I build my battery Bank up. Like I said I am a single father of three funding is not something I have a lot of try to build something for my family to enjoy for a long time. My kids are only 8 6 + 4.
Running an AC unit on battery is a huge power demand and causes major size issues for both the battery and solar recharging. A 300 watt solar panel is roughly 3'x6' in size and weigh 50+ pounds each. You can get smaller and lighter panels but they cost more. Imagine 4 such panels (1200) and having them out in the sun on your camping trip. How to transport and deploy them, you need to figure that out. A 5000 BTU AC unit will run about 5 amps on a 120v connection, so figure about 600 watts. To run this 4 hours will be about 2.5 Kilowatt hours of power. There are charging losses and inverter losses so figure you need about 3 Kwhr of battery and 4 kwhr of solar to charge it. That is on a good sunny day. Those 4 huge panels might charge it in ideal sun conditions. More panels would increase your odds of a full charge. You must keep the panels in the sun and somewhat pointed in the direction of the sun for best charging. Making a larger battery bank, charging off of AC at home and topping of with solar charge would make sense. But you will end up with more solar equipment than camping equipment. Note 1200 watts of solar panels might get 1000 watts for 4 hours a day if pointed correctly. Don't expect the rated power. That only happens when the air is cool and the sky is clear blue.
Back to generator, if you have enough battery to run all night a small 2000 watt generator can charge batteries better than 6 huge solar panels and does not need the sun. Some solar panels could be charging a little during the day and maybe keep the frig from pulling down your battery, then at some point in the afternoon, start the generator and let it pump up the batteries for the night. Then turn it off and run on the batteries.
Again the AC is the killer here. A tiny fan and a bag of ice might be an option.
Back to generator, if you have enough battery to run all night a small 2000 watt generator can charge batteries better than 6 huge solar panels and does not need the sun. Some solar panels could be charging a little during the day and maybe keep the frig from pulling down your battery, then at some point in the afternoon, start the generator and let it pump up the batteries for the night. Then turn it off and run on the batteries.
Again the AC is the killer here. A tiny fan and a bag of ice might be an option.
By the way, don't run out and buy deep cycle lead acid batteries to "get started" on something you can run your inverter off of. Look at Will's videos on Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries. You can assembly your own from large cells and do it in stages where you have 4 cells to give you 12v and then add 4 more, and 4 more, etc. Lead Acid has many drawbacks.
I want to start by thanking everybody for their input on this thread. I've come to find out that running an AC off of a solar panel through the night would not work. Most of the people's running ACS in campers are mainly running them during the day. I was only looking to run it at night. Maybe one day I will build up to that. But for now I will still be running solar for my camping needs I have not got anything yet and I'm working on a very limited budget. I've come to find out I'm going to be looking for about 400 watts of solar power with a 300 amp hour battery pack and just see how much stuff I can run off of that. And yes maybe a generator to run an AC at night. Like I said again thank you all very much. Now the next step is start figuring out what solar system I want to get. Heck I still need to get a enclosed utility trailer so I can do all this Big Dreams low-budget
I think I have fallen for the soler stuff here...some one did say something about running and ice maker. And that will be in my solar bank!!! To top off coolers in the day time. Maybe make a swamp cooler for the tent at night. Running off a 12v fan. Anyone have any used solar equipment they are willing to sell? Or do I need to make a new thread for that. Or is there a thread for selling?
Delmar
Solar Addict
Kudos for wanting to get into solar, however air conditioning is one massive leap. I would start small with a 12V AGM battery and make a hobby of finding 12V conveniences. Will require minimal solar charging, if at all. Can even buy a lightweight kit from Harbor Freight.
My 12V office system includes lights, USB chargers and a computer case fan for air circulation. It moves a surprising amount of air, buy one for each person. While not as cool as air conditioning it will make a big difference in keeping you comfortable while camping.
My 12V office system includes lights, USB chargers and a computer case fan for air circulation. It moves a surprising amount of air, buy one for each person. While not as cool as air conditioning it will make a big difference in keeping you comfortable while camping.
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