DIY Vandwellers, Rv'ers, Campers, Solar LED lighting

[ssj4goko4]

funny part is people say you never make your money back going off-grid. my battery cost bought 3 months worth of power bills to replace. meaning it pays for its-self in 90 days.

[luther349]

just seems like alot of work rather then just replacing the bulbs with led ones or cfls. that's what i did. but i also installed a 3kw battery. with my 250 watt panel and 800 watt turbine keeping it charged off-grid is a non issue unless theirs no sun or wind. yes it was a expense really the case with the battery and it will need replacing every couple years if used under load all the time.

[yernott]

You want to do a lot of re wiring to use these in a vehicle camp situation. They break if you move them around too much. You get tempted to use the batteries for other applications. You want your light source above you and not glaring directly into your eyes. If you forget to put them back in the window..

[cdltpx]

I want to build an efficient mobile living device I want stealth but know that is very difficult to pull off if you have solar panels all over it that alone should give your position away since panels are square and flat things that are difficult to conceal so the stealth part will suffer for efficiency. A good model is a diesel rickshaw I saw online it has a drivers seat the rear of the rickshaw is designed to sleep comfortably with plenty storage homeless need this over hand outs.

[ssj4goko4]

@cdltpx you don't need to have perma mounted panels. you can get mobile ones they just tend to cost a bit more. and of course you lose some storage having to store them. zamp sell a nice 125 watt mobile kit just add battery and they can be stacked if you buy more then 1.

[cdltpx]

U could use tin cans to make mounting bases that can be magnet attached or tacked to locations where you collect sun you could even place your batteries indoors so if U wanted quick easy acess to your storage to apply it elsewhere you would have less work to expound in retrieval of your batt. I went to your page great stuff exactly what we all should be looking toward ends not means to an ends. With tech growing ever smaller and conservative we can ditch the inneficient for this.

[ssj4goko4]

@cdltpx only gel battery's are rated for indoor use. wet led acids give off gas that's not so good for your health

[cdltpx]

@ssj4goko4 Good point I totally forgot about gas it is explosive too? They can be vented outdoors I have heard of folks doing that?

[ssj4goko4]

@cdltpx no just toxic.

[cdltpx]

A little preperation you can take those lawn lights to provide minimal lighting for your area. You can take the LED out add some wire/reflector to them and you drill a hole in the wall of your home and you have a light to keep utilities down. Great to have for hurricane too. Also if you don't need the light at night you can collect the batteries put them in your radio or other lighting devices. For laptop you use a 12 volt to recharge the batt with a large solar panel set.