Living full time in suburban - solar advice needed

malt

New member
A good friend of mine has spent the last year living out the back of a full sized Chevy Silverado, and has recently upgraded to a suburban! A committed dirt bag, he's looking to add a fridge and solar to the rig in this build out, and of course the isolated battery set up illustrated in the wonderfully entertaining thread on this forum (have a beer!).

Most of the threads I've read are geared to the weekend warrior, people talking about running their fridge for two or three days. Since we're looking at full time year round usage.... Any advice?

I think we're homing in on 200 watts of solar, likely the renogy kit, and about 200ah of battery, likely an agm battery but nothing's purchased yet. From a cost standpoint still weighing going the 6v golf cart route.

I know 200 watts of solar won't cut it, hoping the alternator can pick up the slack during daily commuting, but still, I have concerns about the batteries draining down over time, especially in the winter as he's hanging out in the Northeast.

Fridge:

https://www.engelcoolers.com/mr040f-u1.html


Solar kit:
https://www.renogy.com/renogy-200-w...N0No1LyH6ZQLRfuFSDnY4mHZa8t2xzLRoCW80QAvD_BwE

Battery:

Open to suggestions...



So, he's lived for a year on not much, we're aiming to help improve the quality of life a bit but as you can imagine money is an issue. My main concern is that this system won't achieve what he needs, which is running a fridge, and will end up being money wasted.

So, are we close? How big do we need to go to run a fridge non stop?

Thanks all!
 

john61ct

Adventurer
If at all possible go pairs of flooded 6V GC, best value Duracell (Deka) from Sam's Club or Batteries+.

One pair maybe barely, two pair better (400+A)

Only good AGM are Lifeline, Odyssey and Northstar, much more expensive, less robust and fussier charge requirements.

----
Renogy panels, OK but kit/controller meh.

Best value SC is Victron MPPT 75/15 under $100.

Best paired with higher-voltage "nominal 24V" up to 65 VoC, lots of headroom for MPPT efficiency.

Max 250-300w per controller, if you can fit two such panels, each on its own SC you'd be sitting pretty, but unlikely.

Alt (driving) or genny charging in the morning, then a full day of solar helps get the bank back to 100% as often as possible, make them last for years.

ACR to charge all batts at once, isolate Starter when not charging.
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
Fridge specs say typical draw 1-2 amps per hour. Let's think worst case and say 2, so 48 amp*hours per day. Call it 50. Then add 20% because batteries are only 80% efficient. So 60ah/day just to run the fridge.

Assume solar puts out full power for 4 hours a day 60ah ÷ 4h = 15a. So he needs 15a solar minimum. 15a x 12v = 180w.

But solar isn't 100% efficient either. So add another 20% to get 216w. Plus PNW location...

200w of solar and 100ah of battery would (probably) do it, but marginal and nothing left over for other stuff like lights and charging a laptop.

3 100w Renogy panels, 200ah of battery and a decent MPPT charge controller (that kit comes with a PWM charge controller) and he'd be good to go.

Commute won't do much to charge the battery unless it's a few hours a day.
 
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Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
I'm not sure there is enough information here to give a useful answer. You say "living full time" but you also say "commuting." So which is it, living or commuting?
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The thing about solar panels is you have to set them up and then you have to take them down again if you move the vehicle (unless you're planning on mounting them to the roof of the suburban which I suppose is another option.)
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How many days at a time will the vehicle be sitting parked vs. how much time will be spent driving?
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Is a generator an option? Even a fairly small generator running for several hours can probably top off a battery much quicker than a solar panel, especially in the PNW (I was stationed at Fort Lewis, WA from 1989 - 91 and from what I recall the sun disappears around November and doesn't show up again until May or June. ;) )
 

malt

New member
Living full time = he lives in the truck, eats sleeps etc. He's an EMT among other things, so he has places to shower etc.

Commuting = Works in the city, tends to camp out wherever is pleasant, so he still gets a bit of a daily drive in.

Based on current behavior the most the vehicle sits is about 2 days without any sort of driving around, unfortunately there are no normal long drives, he doesn't have an hour long commute each way so based on some other feedback it appears the alternator won't be helping us out too much.

Difficulty with a generator is that the truck is home, so where to store it and gas. Also running it, low profile has been important. I don't think walmart would enjoy a generator running in their parking lot even though they do allow for campers to stay overnight for example.
 

malt

New member
Thanks for the perspective on GC batteries btw, I think that's how we're going to go on this.
 

SGNellett

Adventurer
I wonder if anyone makes a small under hood gas powered generator?

Seems like there might not be much of a market for it, but I could see contractors using something like this, who knows who els?
 

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
So presuming that he drives the 'burb to work and then parks it, would running a power cord to a 120vAC outlet and a charger be an option?
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I'll bet his batteries would charge a lot better that way than a day or two of dodgy solar power in the boondocks. A fully charged dual 6v GC battery setup should easily be able to run a fridge for several days - we have 230ah in ours (duracell FLAs.) Chilly New England winter days also means the fridge isn't working so hard.
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The one concern might be using FLA batteries if the batteries will be located in the same compartment where he sleeps. AGM might be a better idea but they will cost more.
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And as for the correction on New England vs PNW: I don't think changes the challenges for solar power - New England can also have multiple days of clouds/rain which effectively means he would get zero help from a solar panel. Not to mention the fact that there are lots of trees in New England so he'd have to find camping spots that have enough southern exposure to make solar panels work if there IS sun.
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I just don't think solar is viable for this kind of setup without some other source of power to keep the batteries charged.
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Now, if he lived in AZ and could count on multiple sunny days most of the time, maybe it would work. The deserts also have more open land where he wouldn't have to worry about trees blocking his sunlight.
 

malt

New member
Agreed and thanks for the input, charging up at work may be an option and would be the most viable way to provide consistent power.

There are threads to explore in charging, will dive into those next.
 

Martinjmpr

Wiffleball Batter
Agreed and thanks for the input, charging up at work may be an option and would be the most viable way to provide consistent power.
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There are threads to explore in charging, will dive into those next.
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Not just charging up at work either. Have him run an extension cord so he can power the fridge on 120vAC while he is near a plug. That will mean he isn't using his battery at all!
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BTW that is exactly what I do when we camp: We have a travel trailer and sometimes we camp at a site that has electric power. In such cases, I always have long extension cords that I run to the fridge. I only run on 12v when I have no shore power, if there is shore power I'll run off that.
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It looks a little "redneck" to have that orange cord running through the passenger window on my Suburban and all the way to the shore power connector, but I don't care! :sombrero:
 

malt

New member
What's the concern with having the GC batteries in the same compartment as sleeping? We're going to build a wood and insulated battery box for them, would that alleviate concerns?
 

dwh

Tail-End Charlie
What's the concern with having the GC batteries in the same compartment as sleeping? We're going to build a wood and insulated battery box for them, would that alleviate concerns?

Whenever lead-acid batteries are charged, a process called "electrolysis" occurs. Electrons flowing through the electrolyte bounce off of water molecules. If the electron hits just right, the bonding that holds the water molecule together lets go - splitting the H2O into H, H, and O.

With a sealed battery, the resulting hydrogen and oxygen (rocket fuel) floats to the top where it encounters a platinum catalyst that helps recombine the rocket fuel into water.

With a vented battery, the rocket fuel just...vents.
 

rayra

Expedition Leader
There's roughly 4'x8'+ of usable roof space on a Suburban. Find panels that are within 48"x24" and he could fit four of them if he must. So conceivably 400W of panels.

I'm trying to 'hide' mine a bit, using a 100W folding panel, which just fits within and between the tall side rails of my Z-71 model, 44" width.
 

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