First Weekend Of The Season!!! Git 'R Done!!

[chasd60]

Headed out this weekend for Camden Hills State Park in Camden, ME
last minute decision and it is just DD and I with maybe one of her friends. DW doesn't like to go when the night time temps are in the 30's. We plan on hiking most of the time there. The daytime temps will be in the upper 50's on Saturday and mid-upper 60's on Sunday. All Maine State park CG's are no hookup so I'll get to try out my solar panels too.
 
Let the camping season begin!!!!!:D
Pics from several years ago.
 
http://userpages.prexar.com/chasd/camden.html
http://userpages.prexar.com/chasd/camden2.html

[hoppy]

Sounds like fun.

 Can I go?

  I don't mind 30 degree temperature. It's the best time to be sitting around the 'ol campfire.

  No kidding, have a great time.

[Tim5055]

Well, I wanted to go out this weekend, but the Niagara is sitting at the dealer for a few warranty repairs.

Hope they get it out soon.

Have fun, it sounds great.  I like night temps in the 30's or 40's as I sleep better when it is cold with lots of blankets!!!

[tlhdoc]

I wish we were camping too.  This is the second great weekend in  a row and I am taking the PU to the dealer today.  We are camping next weekend, I hope it is just as nice.  Have a great trip Charlie.

[ForestCreature]

Looks like I'm to late to tell you to have a great time, so Welcome back!
   I hope you enjoyed the fresh air while I am here stuck inside smelling fresh paint.
 
   So.....how'd the Solar perform?

[chasd60]

What a great weekend!!!
We went on a long hike that took us up about 1300 feet in elevation. My legs still ache from that one.
 
I opened the bunkends in my hybrid but probably shouldn't have. It was very cold at night, got down in the teens on Friday night.
 
Here are some power consumption figures as I recall them. Next time I'll jot them down in a notebook.
 
The furnace uses about 5A with the blower and burner running.
The water heater with DSI actually uses around .7-1 amp when it is running.
The refrigerator/freezer uses about .6A when it is running and another 1.5A when you open the door for the light.
Radio uses ~.3A when it is off and about 1A when it is on and that depends on the volume. It bumps up to about 1.5A-1.7A to play a CD.
The water pump uses about 8A while in operation.
Each light with two bulbs uses ~2.8-2.9A.
The little bunk end fans used about .2A on low and maybe .4A on high. Much lower than I expected so we ran them all night to keep the condensation in check.
 
I have 230AH capacity and I think I used around 60AH-65AH the first evening til Saturday. I had a site with a pine tree blocking the sun until around 2PM and then it had occasional shadows from the tree branches. Two of us camping in the entire CG and I pick a site with a tree in the way!!
 
I am not sure how much capacity I regained during the day but I only saw the meter go above 5A charging, maybe once or twice.
 
By Sunday morning (another cold night) I had a deficit of -103AH on my Link10 battery system monitor. It also showed that I was at 53% of my capacity remaining.
 
I checked the output in full sun without the TV hooked up and it was 7.6A. When I plugged the TV in without the engine running, the solar output dropped to 6.2A. I assume this was caused by some of the solar output being diverted to the TV. The monitor system operates thru the camper ground to the battery and would not pick up any output to the TV but would pick up the charge current from the TV.
When I started the TV the current output jumped to 16.2A. That would indicate about 10A of it was from the TV and the rest from the panels if the charge controller maintained that output.
 
All in all I think I'll have no problem what so ever with my solar setup. The biggest usage by far was the furnace running at night. It barely even shut off when the temp got down to the lowest point. I have been in the camper when it was colder wth the ends closed and the furnace cycled very little.
 
I think I can attribute about 40-50AH per day to the furnace alone.
 
Might sneak off for another trip this coming weekend..................
To ACADIA NP:D

[6Quigs]

Thanks for the amp readings, though I had to read it twice to confirm that you were talking about 12 volts not 120 volts!!

We don't dry camp as much as we used to in the popup, mainly because we do a lot more winter camping, and it's nice to not to have to worry about power usage.
We do have a few trips planned this summer, that will be dry camping, and it's nice to know whata are the big power users. I know the 13" TV will be left at home!!

[chasd60]

Thanks for the amp readings, though I had to read it twice to confirm that you were talking about 12 volts not 120 volts!!
 
We don't dry camp as much as we used to in the popup, mainly because we do a lot more winter camping, and it's nice to not to have to worry about power usage.
We do have a few trips planned this summer, that will be dry camping, and it's nice to know whata are the big power users. I know the 13" TV will be left at home!!

I'll get back to you on the 13" TV. I used it but I don't recall what it used for power. I have an inverter and it is an AC television.
 
I am thinking about getting a USB TV Tuner for my laptop. I need to find out the difference in power consumption I guess.

[chasd60]

Thanks for the amp readings, though I had to read it twice to confirm that you were talking about 12 volts not 120 volts!!
 
 We don't dry camp as much as we used to in the popup, mainly because we do a lot more winter camping, and it's nice to not to have to worry about power usage.
 We do have a few trips planned this summer, that will be dry camping, and it's nice to know whata are the big power users. I know the 13" TV will be left at home!!

My inverter which is a small one that only operates the fan when required uses 0.1A with nothing plugged into it, 0.7-0.8A with my 13" TV plugged into it but turned off. And with the TV on it uses 3.6-4.9A depending upon how bright the picture on the tube is at the time.