I didn’t expect much, they were too small to begin with and completely unable to contribute much of anything. It set us up so we could test when boondocking without solar. It didn’t really surprise me that they did nothing. I’m sure I mentioned it, but in case it wasn’t clear, our year 2008 factory-installed solar collectors don’t do anything other than shade the roof. Here is a link to the description of my battery system. The impact on our state of charge was immediate and obvious, but it worked, and then we recharged later with the generator. ![]() For me, using the microwave from the battery was test enough. Before now we have been too timid to try and cook in our electric oven without running our generator. Today while boondocking without solar, we (Tami) cooked two batches of scones in the oven only using only battery power. During the day we use lights, computers, and the microwave without regard for the effect on our battery bank. However, when boondocking without solar, we don’t live that way. If we started with a full charge, we would have empty batteries in 2.5 – 3.5 days. When boondocking without solar, even if we were to, and we don’t try to, maintain the same consumption during the day as we do at night, this would mean that we would consume 240-336 amp hours every twenty-four hour period. This includes the refrigerator, CPAP, and heat. It has been a little less than ten but never more than fourteen. We now have more than 850 amp hours of battery and our measured overnight consumption is between 10-14 amps per hour. It runs on electricity that we hold in our battery bank. The refrigerator is more than double the size of our previous refrigerator. I can blame that directly on our huge residential refrigerator (this is nothing new). Our average consumption overnight is more than double that of our previous RV. We have a huge (manageable) energy use when boondocking without solar. In Idaho, our longest run without outside power was eleven nights in a row. We now have thirty days of boondocking without solar (so far this summer) to prove that not only is boondocking without solar possible but that boondocking with solar is going to be easier than ever before. Our battery system is holding us into the second day without recharging so it has met the design goal of two days without sunshine. ![]() Boondocking without solar, we have done that before but never have we done it this easily.
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