Location: Parking lot of RV Connection in Yuma, Arizona
The road noise died down and I slept well last night. This morning, I was up with the Sun again taking Yuma for a walk while my coffee percolated.
Last night I had to shut the solar power off because my batteries were getting low. The reason was I had the fridge going from a warm state to cold so it was running full time. However we didn't turn the solar power on until after 6 o'clock so my batteries didn't have a full charge to meet the demand.
Going to be a beautiful day and not as warm as yesterday. I turned the solar power on when I got back from our walk. Today, I'll get a full dose of solar power and the batteries will be fully charged for tonight's test.
It wasn't long before I was removing everything from my ice chest and placing the items in the fridge.
So happy to not have to keep digging through ice to find what I'm looking for.
On one of my walks, Yuma met our neighbor's dog name Mattie. She was fairly aggressive and would snarl at poor Yuma, but she still wanted to run around chasing Yuma too. She wasn't sure if she liked Yuma or not.
Tom placed two monitors in the wall next to the TV in the bedroom. One he had in before I took a picture. That is the big black box above the white one. He had the hole cut for the other one. The second picture shows both monitors installed and working.
By 5 o'clock, Tom had everything done with the WL except for installing the transfer switch and that is about a fifteen minute task. He is ordering that and it will be here on Tuesday. I'm actually glad for the delay because it gives me two days to use my solar power while I'm here with Tom near by in case I have a problem or questions.
My first night of using solar power will test whether my batteries stored enough power to get me through the night without running too low. If they can't, I'll be buying more batteries to store more solar power fairly soon. I started the evening with 100% battery power and would like to have 40% or more left in the morning to pass the test. I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow.
This evening I turned on the Dish and TV to watch The Walking Dead. After that, a nice hot shower and now to finish my blog and have a light dinner and dessert. I ate a big late lunch, so I'm not really hungry.
Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time, but for the rest of you, welcome to DST!
Beautiful evening here. See you later.
phat a beautiful sunrise. It sounds like today's work went well. Hopefully, your batteries will hold up overnight. Mattie wasn't the sweetest girl. Bea5utiful pictues of the moon and sunset.
ReplyDeleteThanks Dolly. It was a good day and Tom's installation is excellent. Everything is placed in a logical order and easy to follows. The batteries are at 60% as the sun rises which is great.
DeleteSomething I do to use a tad less electricity, especially if you are on solar, is to set the fridge temp up 2 degrees. Things will be just fine if you are not always opening the door. Same goes for the freezer. I also keep large bottles of water (frozen) in the freezer taking up any extra space to help keep it cold.
ReplyDeleteThanks Nancy. I was wondering if I should keep the temperature up a few degrees. I really like your idea on the frozen water containers because I have a huge freezer with very little in it. :))
DeleteWith all the Solar Panels you have on the roof you could easily run Eight Batteries but that is a lot of weight to be carrying around.
ReplyDeleteLike yourself our Inverter connects to the system through the Automatic Transfer Switch would have been used for an on-board generator. Using a portable generator we simply use the Power Cord to plug in the Trailer. Must have run it Twenty Hours in Three Years.
Once you turn on the Solar Panels they will continue to work non-stop. When the Batteries are fully charged the Charge Controllers will stop adding energy. It is the Inverter that uses up the energy from the Batteries that you are turning off. If you leave it on continually it will drain your batteries.
Glad things are shaping up for you.
Be Safe and Enjoy being off the grid.
It's about time.
Thanks Rick. I'm sure I will add three more batteries myself this summer to be ready for next travel season. Tomorrow will be cloudy all day. Good test for the batteries. I'm sure I will have to run the generator sometime tomorrow depending on how much the fridge draws.
DeleteShame on Mattie. She should know Yuma is one of the good guys. I bet you are estactic to not need the ice chest anymore. Have a sunny bright day!
ReplyDeleteToday Mattie and Yuma played nice. I think the two have finally figured out who is top dog. :)) Certainly glad to be done with the ice chest. I hope.
DeleteGood luck hope it all worked for you. It'll be wonderful to to live out of the ice chest. Beautiful sunset pictures!
ReplyDeleteThanks Shirley. I hope the ice chest remains just a storage container for the remainder of my journey.
DeleteJust catching up on blog reading. Sounds like things are coming along nicely and yes, you are in the perfect spot to test the batteries and solar. With Tom close at hand.
ReplyDeleteYour first picture is absolutely gorgeous!!