Friday, February 24, 2017

BBBC 2017 #24

This post is part of ToadMama's Brave, Bold, Blogger Challenge (BBBC) 2017 which is an attempt to make February go by a little more quickly. There are 28 topics, one for each day. 


What you ate for breakfast

I actually took this photo on Tuesday (look at the clear skies!) but I figured that it didn't really matter what day since I have the same thing almost every day. It is a glass of the green juice. I used to make the version from the movie Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead but the fresh ingredients ended up being pretty expensive. I now settle for the grocery store version. It's tasty but, in my opinion, has way too much fruit juice and not enough vegetable juice. The coffee house versions all have the same problem so maybe it's just me. I don't need all that sugar from the fruit juice. But I figure that it's probably still better than a more traditional breakfast. In our house, the more traditional breakfasts are usually served as the evening meal.

What Else is Going On?

Not  whole lot. We ended up with over 6" of snow on the driveway so I got to play with the plow. I had ordered one more of the battery on/off switches to be able to switch power going to the DC side of the RV. I couldn't find any info on the current draw of the hydraulic pump or the front landing jacks so I figured that the 250 amp rating of the switch was adequate. The challenge seems to be finding a place on the plywood board for it. Not a whole lot of room. No significant sunlight today so only 2 amp-hours of charge for the battery bank. I disassembled the combiner box so I could drill the hole on the bottom that will feed the 4 awg wires into the trailer through the roof. That's about it for today. I didn't even go to College Coffeehouse today...

16 comments:

  1. I wish we'd gotten six inches of snow, all we got was a dusting which didn't last.

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    1. Six inches or more of snow is when it starts to get disruptive. Especially when combined with unseasonably warm temperatures. A lot of accidents with cars on their roofs and sides due to excessive speed on slick roads.

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  2. Green juice, yum yum! The photo is very nice though. And I am enjoying your solar updates. We may look into solar for the RV one day. Do you plan to be totally self sufficient?

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    1. The green juice is tasty and satisfies the requirement of breakfast.

      Glad you're liking the solar updates. The goal is not having to run the generator as often and being able to run the refrigerator on AC while traveling. I'm guessing that summertime travel requires A/C which means using the generator. No way to escape that.

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  3. Yes, at least in our coach, we have to run the generator or have 50amp to run the A/C units. We are all electric, so we'd have to nearly cover the roof in panels to make solar worthwhile, but unless we don't travel in the heat at all, still have to run generator for heat or air.

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    1. All electric meaning induction stove and residential refrigerator? Technomadia.com has all electric and solar but have something over 1000 watts and lithium batteries. I am bringing an induction burner just to generate less heat while cooking. It runs just fine off of my inverter and battery bank. We'll see how it goes this summer.

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  4. Yes, induction cook top and residential fridge. I have read all about Technomadia's solar but I am not clear if it will run their AC or they still have to run the generator for that.

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    1. Still need the generator for the A/C but they do need all the panels and lithium batteries for the residential fridge and induction cooktop. They had said that they just avoid hot and humid.

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    2. Interesting...they have been in Florida for the last couple of months, and even in the winter, there is no avoiding hot and humid...

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    3. Their A/C will run off the lithium batteries through the 3000 watt inverter boosting the power from shore power or their 2500 watt generator. Battery power alone will run one of th A/C units for about 2 1/2 hours according to their article but if more than that is needed, then the generator or some shore power is needed. A 15 amp household circuit is sufficient for one when supplemented by the boost from the inverter for when the compressor starts I guess. Come to think of it, I used to run the A/C on our last trailer on a 15 amp circuit.

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    4. I had not heard of the booster inverter before to supplement a generator. Then I probably could've gotten by on with a smaller generator. I picked up two 2000 watt generators that can be paralleled when we want A/C. Or just one if no A/C. Power is definitely the weak point in an RV if you don't want to run a generator.

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  5. I hadn't heard of the booster inverter either, but if there's a way, I am convinced they will find it! We aren't full time so we generally rely on campgrounds with utilities. If that changes, we would definitely further investigate solar options

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    1. How does that go "the cheapest part of a BMW is the owner". I'd rather not pay for a real campsite if I'm just passing through somewhere. On prior trips I was annoyed at paying $40+ for a parking space that I needed for 12 hours. If we're staying for a bit, no problem.

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  6. Agreed. If we are just overnighting we usually find a casino or rest area and run the generator if we need to.

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  7. I'd never heard of Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. What's the green juice recipe from the movie?

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    1. A half bunch of kale, cucumber, one apple, celery, ginger. Mostly vegetables with an apple for sweetness. All run through a juicer. Most green smoothies are mostly fruit with a little bit of kale or spinach for color.

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