Extend Season: Using solar and furnace

[marcap]

Hi everyone,

We're living up north in Minnesota and would like to extend our season a little bit preventing our TT from bursting water lines due to frost. The idea is to run the furnace on 40F (lowest set point) when the TT is in the outdoor storage if there are a couple of nights coming up around 30 (wouldn't go lower than 28). As the battery most likely is the weak point after 2 or 3 days my idea was to use a 100W portable solar panel to top of the battery daily while the TT is in storage. Is anyone doing something similar or has experience with what I'd like to do? During summer it could be helpful to supply power and keep the battery charged, maybe supporting a 12V surveillance camera or a raspberry pi.

Thank you so much!

 

[Gizmo100]

Welcome to the RV Forum marcap

I'm pretty sure a 100 watt panel would not be enough to replenish the battery after a night of use. But I'm no expert on the subject.

I would explore running power to the storage shed.

 

[marcap]

Thank you. Unfortunately it's not an option as I'm renting the space and they're not willing to do so.

Assuming the charger output power will be 85W it would be 85W/12V = 7.08A so to charge 25A-hr (quarter of the battery/ 75% Depth of Charge) would take around 3 hours. With insufficiencies and a sunny day it should be possible to top the battery off. I could add a second 100Ahr battery to create more buffer as I said the goal is to bridge 3-5 days. At a certain point we have to winterize anyway. 

 

[Scott 3]

I tend to go until Veterans Day using onboard water.  I live in the Northeast and some nights make me nervous.  From then on I winterize and only use the toilet.  I flush using bottled water (gallon nonpotable).  I pour antifreeze in the toilet and black tank after dumping and parking it until the next trip.

The initial problem are the thin water lines, pump and Ptraps.  It should take a hard freeze to freeze a full water tank.

 

[Dragginourbedaround]

I top off my batteries using a 100w solar suitcase. I put it in the windshield of my motor home. I'm in FL so I get lots of sun and the house and chassis batteries are turned off.

 

[Gizmo100]

Thank you. Unfortunately it's not an option as I'm renting the space and they're not willing to do so.

Assuming the charger output power will be 85W it would be 85W/12V = 7.08A so to charge 25A-hr (quarter of the battery/ 75% Depth of Charge) would take around 3 hours. With insufficiencies and a sunny day it should be possible to top the battery off. I could add a second 100Ahr battery to create more buffer as I said the goal is to bridge 3-5 days. At a certain point we have to winterize anyway.

As I said I'm not the expert...But I don't believe you will see 7 Amps..I believe you would be very lucky to see 5 amps in direct sunlight. Of course all of this is dependent on how much your furnace fan runs though the night.

You may be better off using OBX's idea.

I don't want you to get the wrong idea I don't have anything against solar. We are using 3 100 watt panels just to keep the batteries topped off when were not using the trailer. I am also testing running a vent fan 24/7 to keep the musty smell from being closed up.

 

[grashley]

Our FW is in the back yard, so I have power connected.  It is my hideout all year, so I run an electric heater just to keep the worst of the chill off.  I do winterize the plumbing, but still use the toilet, flushing with water from gallon jugs.  No other plumbing is used.