On Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:40:28 GMT, "Bob Weinberger"
wrote:


"Larry L" wrote in message
...
snip
I post this for two reasons,
(1) to pat myself on the back a bit as I take pride in my little efforts
to reduce my impact, and
(2) to encourage others to make a small change or two. You won't notice
it by itself, but if we all save a bit of gas, coal, or heating fuel or
take care to walk a little more lightly on the Earth in other ways the
total result will be noticed .... by our kids and grandkids and the
seventh generation.

I applaud you for trying to lesssen your use of fossil fuel. But something
I always wonder about when I hear about this type of action - Have you
actually reduced your life cycle fossil fuel usage by installing such things
as solar panels on a travel trailer.. How long would you need to run your
generator to reach the break even point of the added fuel usage of your
vehicle due to the added weight and air resistance of the panels. Also how
about the energy expended to produce solar panels. I am assuming that you
would still have the generator as a backup.
I'm not asking this to bust your chops. It is something I'd really like to
know (but have been too lazy to research). Given the large number of experts
(at giving opinions) in ROFF, I'm sure that I'll get a lot of feed back.

I can't answer for Larry, but I can tell you that on boats or camping,
the solar panels don't add enough weight to make a real difference in
fuel usage. As to air resistance, we don't leave them out when moving,
so there is none, but if they were placed flat on the roof of a trailer,
the few extra inches of surface area wouldn't account for much, and
certainly not enough to outweigh the panels' use.

As to larger "raw" panel use with 12v systems, there's not much to
research, really: get a panel, hook it to an appropriate DC
converter/regulator, and then hook up whatever 12v stuff you wish to
use. Place panel in sun. Add a charging circuit/regulator to charge
storage batteries (deep cycles). Don't break panel(s).

TC,
R

Bob Weinberger La Grande, OR