theboondork's RV blog

Guess who didn't listen to their own advice

11/30/2017

A walk in the desert on a cloudy day

Another cloudy overcast day but its starting to look like it doesn't matter anymore because my batteries are getting charged up to full anyway. I'm not sure if this is because the lithium iron batteries are able to take a charge quicker or the clouds just aren't that thick, but they're thick enough that I didn't see any sunshine the entire day.

There's a cool front coming through Monday and the temperatures are supposed to drop a little for the entire week, there saying low to mid 70s in the daytime and mid to high 40s at night. daytime sounds great but nighttime sounds like an extra blanket.

Today was legally the last day I was supposed to be here. Yep, my two weeks are up and I can't believe how fast they flew by, but I've got a couple of general delivery's coming to the post office in Wickenburg so I have to stay in the area and I might as well stay here in less somebody tells me to leave, which I don't think is likely. But if by some chance they do there are plenty of other boondocking spots in the area so I wouldn't have to go very far.

Since it was cloudy and cool I went for a walk in the desert this afternoon. I'm finding that keeping my laptops charged up is a bit of a chore so I'm spending less time on the computer and more time doing something more useful.

I drove into Safeway this morning partially to pick up a few groceries, but mostly to get rid of my trash. I may have left it in the back of the truck for just a little bit too long.

theboondork

Desert Saguaro boondocking Wickenburg Arizona

This is the tallest Saguaro around here it must be 25 feet tall

Just the other day I was telling everyone not to leave their trash in the back of your truck for too long. So when I go out this morning some birds and a ground squirrel made a hasty retreat from the back of my truck. This is nothing, I've had bears in the back of my truck

If they ate any of the chili that was left in that can, I know where their going to spend the rest of the day.

12 Comments

Vall & Mo link

11/30/2017 04:08:09 pm

Hi Tom,

One other explanation for your batteries getting fully charged even on cloudy days could be that your panels are efficient with diffuse light. I remember reading that about polycrystalline panels, and from your drone pic a few weeks ago, I remember they looked polycrystalline to me.

Cheers,
--
Vall.

theboondork

11/30/2017 06:17:07 pm

I looked up my 140w kyocera panels on the Internet and it says their multicrystallien whatever that means, is that the same as polycrystalline ? Whatever it is they have been working great for these two very cloudy days, Great meaning that they've topped up the batteries every day, and that's all I can ask of them.

I've been through cloudy days before with these panels but they would never top up the batteries, I would gain maybe half of the amps that I lost that night and after a few nights of that the batteries would be getting pretty low. But now they're charging the batteries up completely it just takes them most of the day to do it.

Problem is it's hard to compare one cloudy day to another so I don't know if the new batteries are charging up quicker or these clouds aren't quite as thick as other clouds I've been under. I guess it will take more time dealing with cloudy days to understand what's really happening.

Tom

11/30/2017 07:14:43 pm

Hi Tom,

I'm pretty sure multicrystalline and polycristalline are the same thing. They are supposed to be less efficient in terms of W/SqIn, but they compensate for it with lower costs and more amps under diffuse light when compared to their monocrystalline brethren.

The main difference in charging LiFePO4 vs lead-acids is supposed to be that the former don't need to go through an absorption phase, ie the very slow charging that the latter need after reaching 80% capacity: the lithiums can get full-blown amps right up to 100% (albeit it's advisable to stop charging them at 95% to prolong their life). Do you remember whether you changed anything related to absorption on your charge controller when you reconfigured it for the Battleborns? If you did, this could very well be the reason they are getting charged so well.

Cheers,
--
Vall.

12/1/2017 08:47:59 am

I guess multi and poly do sound like the same thing. It seems to me like gaining more capabilities of harvesting in diffuse light is a good trade-off. Since diffuse light is something we all face pretty regularly I will gladly take more capabilities in that area.

Yeah I changed pretty much everything on my controller. Battleborn has a paper on the Internet that takes you through the steps of setting up your solar controller for their batteries. It's real simple just a few switches to move up or down, but among other things it gets rid of that absorption stage.

It looks like another day of very cloudy weather for me here at Box Wash which will be my third. But it hasn't been a test of how many days of cloudy weather I can deal with because I'm charged up every afternoon despite the very cloudy weather.

Tom

Barney Ward

11/30/2017 06:52:29 pm

I have always gotten somewhat decent charging in desert type cloudy days. Coastal cloudy days are a different animal altogether. Nothing much comes through those wet suckers. I am running 350 watts of panels.

11/30/2017 07:15:41 pm

I was pretty sure most of the South would be that way and the coastal areas would be worse. I had always planned that one of these winters I would try and spend it in the South I know there's a big downside to that, such as very few boondocking areas, and cloudy days are pretty common, and I think it's more expensive compared to the South West. But my roots run deep in the South with almost all of my relatives buried in Alabama, Georgia, or Florida.

So maybe I would have to throw on another solar panel, another battery or heaven forbid, destroy my reputation and go to an RV Park.

12/1/2017 12:37:23 pm

Hi Tom,

> among other things it gets rid of that absorption stage.

Outstanding! So I'd say this is the main reason you're getting full batteries even during cloudy days, when with the lead-acids you weren't: your new batteries are getting full amps all the time, therefore getting filled while the sun is still producing the most amps.

Congrats on a great setup, Tom. We will probably copy it when the time comes to assemble ours.

Cheers,
--
Vall.

12/1/2017 02:48:10 pm

When it comes time to assemble yours I sure hope the price of lithium iron batteries has gone down, at least a little bit sense you will be providing electricity for two.

It would be interesting to find out how much, if any at all, two people will use as opposed to one. I imagine you've had to give that considerable thought.

Come to think of it I'm not sure if it would have much at all to do with the amount of people. Other than the hairdryer thing. I think it would mostly depend on how much time you spend playing on the computer, or watching television. For me without a doubt my biggest user is the computer. I would make a wild guess that my computer uses 70 or 80 percent of the power I use during the day. Without a computer I could probably live quite comfortably with only two batteries.

Tom

Linda Sand

12/1/2017 04:25:16 pm

Then there's the night I was parked under a light stand at Walmart and my batteries started charging. I couldn't believe what my monitor was telling me. Those were AGMs.

12/1/2017 06:38:00 pm

Wow! I've never heard of that before. Maybe because I try not to Park under the lights at Walmart. But now that I know that I'll give it a try, its just one more reason I love Walmart.

Tom

12/1/2017 06:50:24 pm

Yep night time charging in parking lots happens lots of times. It is not much but I usually picked up a couple of AH.

12/1/2017 07:41:05 pm

I had never heard of that. I always thought there was something special in the sun's rays that made the solar panels work, or it was just magic.

When in Walmart I always try to park over at the edge of the parking lot so my slideout can hang over the edge and not stick out into the parking lot. And often there's no lights over at the sides of the parking lot which I used to think was great because I didn't have lights shining in my windows. But next time I stay at a Walmart I'll Park under the lights and see what happens.

I just had a cunning plan, a plan so cunning it will revolutionize boondocking. At night I will bring my solar panels inside the Arctic Fox, turn on every light in the trailer and the solar panels will keep the batteries charged during the night. I will have endless electricity.

The only problem I can see with this plan is that it will be to bright in the trailer to sleep so I will probably have to sleep outside, and if I have to sleep outside what do I need a trailer for.

Tom

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