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RE: The Surthrival Trailer has AC!
Have you already covered your solar system and battery set up? You have enough power to run the AC all day and meet your other needs?
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Have you already covered your solar system and battery set up? You have enough power to run the AC all day and meet your other needs?
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I have around 1.98kW of solar and 10kwh of battery bank. The AC is drawing around 550 watts I had not originally intended to keep it air conditioned but as long as it doesn't run full blast when the sun is down it's all good.
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Nice, that's a lot of power.
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It's quite a system, I hope to really showcase the potential of it as it's essentially a mobile microgrid. I'd love to continue building more of them, and make new improvements to the design. I'm looking into buying some unframed solar panels and creating my own composite frames to lighten the trailer substantially.
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I'll be interesting in seeing how light you can get them and what protection you go with. I think the glass is the majority of the weight and anything else will cloud up in just a couple of years.
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Good point sir, I'll have to do some deep dives to find a better solution to the glass that is as long lasting. The flexible panels have that flaw and sounds like the max they last is around 10 years if you're lucky. I'm just thinking about replacing the aluminum frame with a composite. I was reading some DOD materials where they have been experimenting with composites for solar panels in field deployment.
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I'll bet 10 years is only for a stationary system. Driving with them is like being sandblasted. The reviews for the flexible panel's I bought where people permanently mounted them to the roof of an RV said they lost considerable conversion ability after just a season.
None mentioned the specifics, but I think those ppl weren't very experienced DIY'ers, if at all. So, reading between the lines, using my knowledge and experience, I believe it's because the coating has very little abrasion resistence.
I want to protect mine better, so I'll be researching this topic as well. If I come across anything promising, I'll let you know.
I had a solar panel mounted on my work truck for years, and just washed it when I washed the windows and lights, without noting any degradation in performance or the clarity of the glass.
Right, glass...I'm talking about other options to lighten up the panels. I have both panels framed in glass that are heavy, but won't scratch and flexible panel's set in epoxy that do scratch.
What's the best none-glass material that can be used to lighten the panels that has the same abrasion resistance as glass, but is lighter?
So, I was specifically addressing plastic coated panel's clouding over, because they cannot handle wind blown dust like glass does, because glass is the heaviest material used in framed panel's.
Killer! There's got to be a way to create a uv stable hardened coating, or use a thinner glass with possibly some selective reinforcement.
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