Awesome opening weekend at the Ohio Renaissance Faire! Boondocking is working out great so far, even with the heat. Good times!

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Comment by Jimco_W001 on September 2, 2014 at 12:40am

Kevin,good to hear that the fair is doing well.

Comment by Kevin F Smith on September 1, 2014 at 9:12pm

Outstanding overall opening weekend at the Ohio Renaissance Faire in Waynesville, Ohio!  I was not expecting it to be this busy, especially today!  I have to build a LOT of catapults this week!

Kev

Comment by John "T" Nordhoff on August 31, 2014 at 9:51pm

  Kevin, Cool with 700 watts of solar I see now why you shouldn't hardly ever have to use the genset to power your converter/charger. Gotta love it

 John T 

Comment by Kevin F Smith on August 31, 2014 at 8:17pm

We have 705 watts (rated) of Canadian Solar monocrystalline panels on the roof, flat mounted.  They actually put out more like 780 watts when the summer sun is directly overhead...lol!  We use a Powermax Boondocker converter, 120 amps...so it CAN draw a lot of power if the batteries are low, which is why we keep it unplugged when running the air, since the solar array is more than adequate.  Its the reason our genny only uses about a half gallon an hour when running the AC.  That said, today it was raining like heck and the batteries were down to about 12.2 this morning, so we ran the genny without the air and the converter plugged in for about 3 hours, and it completely charged the batteries back to full charge.  And then in the afternoon, we had to turn the genny on again because it was getting hot inside, so we unplugged the converter.  It works for us.  The less the power draw, the less the load on the genny...and the better the fuel economy.

Comment by John "T" Nordhoff on August 31, 2014 at 11:02am

  Kevin, no 11 bucks a day to keep cool in cases of high temps when dry camping ISNT TOO SHABBY. The only thing I might or might NOT do different (depends on solar wattage and sun and angle and how much charge is actually required) is if the genset is running anyway, I just "might" let the Converter/Charger run to do its thing as they are often (especially if a Smart 3 or 4 stage) 30 to 75 amp or more and will do a good job of bringing the batteries up to full charge state FOR NOT MUCH MORE GAS COST AT ALL. However, if the Solar is providing all the energy replacement needed, then no need to run the Converter/Charger whatsoever. My 200 watts of solar has always provided all the energy required, in which case, same as you, there wouldn't be any need for the charger to operate when the genny is running. 

 GOTTA LOVE SELF SUFFICIENT DRY CAMPING

 John T

Comment by Kevin F Smith on August 31, 2014 at 9:00am

Since I'm charging the batteries off the solar panels, (the converter is unplugged even with the genny running), and the fridge is set to propane, the only load on our Emerald 3 6.5K genny is the air conditioning.  It burns about 1/2 gallon an hour, and we are only using it for about 6 hours a day on average, during the hottest part of the day.  So that is 3 gallons a day at around 3.50 a gallon, so around 11 bucks a day.  Not too shabby!

Comment by John "T" Nordhoff on August 31, 2014 at 8:36am

  Hi Kevin, sounds like fun at the fair.  We do a lot of dry camping and we get by fine EXCEPT FOR when its real hot and that's when it's not as fun. What we do is in the evening run the genset maybe an hour with the AC on to cool things down, then when we go to bed we have the rooftop vents open and the one in the bedroom has like a Max Air 12 VDC powered vent fan we let run al night. If you have the side bedroom windows open the fan pulls in the cooler outside air and vents it up out the top fan and it keeps the temp good enough for sleeping. Of course you need plenty of house battery energy storage capacity and possibly solar to recharge the batteries the next day.   

 Have fun, keep on keepin on

 John T

Comment by Jimco_W001 on August 30, 2014 at 8:33pm
Hi Kevin,I heard about the heat you are receiving in southern ohio.
Running your gen has got to cost you.It's been hot & humid up here as well.

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