Puttin together another solar trailer to keep busy

Discussions about Renewable Energy, including photovoltaics, wind, and small scale hydro.
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Dennis The Bus Dweller
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Puttin together another solar trailer to keep busy

Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

This ones a 6' x 12' I'm either gonna use these 7 / 110 watt panels I have sittin in the barn or buy the 4 / 210 watt Evergreen panels I had the rack made for. I'm tryin to keep the spending down til i hook another job and the 7 Seamen 110's will fit pretty well if I add a few more cross members to the rack. I'm gonna find a way to incorporate the little Air-X in to it some how. after all, power is power, right 8)


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Post by Headache »

I'm really envious of you number crunchers! My head wants to explode when I even make a feeble attempt to figure out how much power I'll need to run all my stuff! I'm going to be using a lot of juice.

Would a wind turbine be worth it for anyone to use or only for certain applications?
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

My head wants to explode when I even make a feeble attempt to figure out how much power I'll need to run all my stuff
I don't figure anything out I just do the most I can with what I got and if I end up with overkill then good for me :wink: Academically i'm not the brightest light in the barn but I've always been able to make up for it with tenacity :D Over the years I've crashed and burned a few time plowing ahead without figuring things out first but fortunately I've always managed to "Getter done" 8)
Last edited by Dennis The Bus Dweller on Thu Apr 28, 2022 4:55 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Post by dburt »

DTBD- maby you ought to make more of those trailers and offer them for sale so as to make yourself some income and not have to try and find work that is getting harder to find. I always thought a trailer like that with a generator, solar power, batteries with an inverter, and a tower you could put up for a wind generator would be really good to have if you want to be totally independant of 'the man'. You could have plenty of power options when you are way off the grid, say in some place like the mountains, desert, Forest Service or BLM land out here in the west.
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Post by Headache »

I wish I could be experimental but my money is so tight I can't afford to make up for mistakes. This is why a few times I just spent the money to have someone else do it and get it right the first time. Especially on the electrical work for my future home, I just cave when I try to figure out something like how much power I'll be using.

However I love reading about everyone's experiments because I learn from them and new ideas pop into my head!

May I ask what you do for work?
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

May I ask what you do for work?
Carpenter, woodworker and I have done a few solar system for money over the years. I learned how to do the solar thing by leaning 12 / 51 watt PV panels on some hay bales, hookin them up to a half a dozen gulf cart batteries and an inverter and using it to build my first skoolie :wink:
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Post by Headache »

Hmm, if I cant find a place to park for a few months that has power I may have to try and rig something like that up!
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

you should do it anyway 8)
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Post by ezrablu »

Yes, we should do it Headache and it will be easy now that Dennis is going to give us step by step instructions with photos here soon :D

Gee, Dennis...you're the bestest :wink:
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Post by Bob »

I find myself drooling once again. One of those babys that is large enough to also house my jeep would be AWESOME!
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Post by ezrablu »

Dennis, this might be a silly question but would you please explain what you do to the solar planels to travel with this trailer? Do they lay down flat or what?

I will soon be putting my solar panels on top of my bus but have nada clue how to do it and don't understand how they stay up there going down the road with no damage with all that wind, vibration, bumps, etc. It seems like it would be very hard on them....roads these days are pretty crappy :D


Mine came with some kind of brackets. But do they stay at an angle on that trailer or do you put them flat to travel? If so, how? Can you show some closeup photos of how the brackets work sometime?
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Post by Headache »

Mine all comes down to money and I'm going to be forking out a lot soon, especially if I have to paint my ride.

The cool part is that the electrical is going to be set up like a "plug and play", so I can get parts and have them installed as I have money for them.
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Post by dburt »

Does anyone have any experience with the 'soft' solar panels that are like large panels of pliable rubber mats, you can roll them up, etc. From what I hear, they can be glued or siliconed to the roof of your RV or bus and will follow the contour of the roof and you don't have to worry about brackets or having them catch the wind when it blows the wrong way or when you are traveling down the highway.
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Post by Headache »

dburt I have been curious aabout those as well. I've been reading some things and now even Amazon sells them.

Peel and stick even!

http://www.amazon.com/Unisolar-68-Flexi ... 02MWDI44/2
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Post by Dennis The Bus Dweller »

From what I understand they are pretty inefficient cuz of the heat of the surface that you stick them to. There also pretty pricey per watt
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