Our last post was on October 6 – just as we passed a previous record flood level from 1953 here at the waterfront in Downtown Sanford Lake Monroe ended up cresting at 8.96′ above normal on October 9th, and the waters have been slowly receding since then. We’ve been living in flood conditions for 20 days […]
RV & Boat Solar
Getting Back to Abundant Desert Boondocking
Earlier this year we returned to our boondocking roots for a month in the deserts of Arizona in our bus. It was oh so wonderful to be out in nature, on our own and feeling abundant in the systems we had long ago setup on Zephyr. From water management, tanks, solar and lithium – in […]
What Killed Our RV Lithium Batteries? 8.5 Years of LiFePo4
In what seems like another world now, last December we replaced our dead lithium batteries in our vintage bus, Zephyr. We originally installed our GBS lithium cells back in August 2011 – and as far as we can tell, we were amongst the first motorhomes to have a lithium house battery system, and we were […]
Tour of our Boat’s Electrical System – Solar, Lithium & Inverters!
As technomads – our mobile electrical systems are the lifeblood of our various nomadic homes. After all – we need to keep all this technology powered up somehow. And while stock RV and boat electrical systems are often perfectly useable (if somewhat limited) – whenever we embrace a technomadic home we just can’t resist diving […]
Running an RV AC off Solar, Batteries, and a Hybrid Boosting Inverter
We’re currently driveway surfing with friends in coastal Georgia, where it’s pretty darn hot (and crazy humid!) as the summer fast approaches. They only have a 15A power outlet on a front porch available for us to plug a long extension cord into, which for many RVs would mean blowing breakers or limping along without […]
RV Solar: Is It Worth It?
We absolutely love living in a solar powered RV. But as awesome as solar can be, it is NOT for everyone. A lot of RVers seem to think that a few hundred watts of solar will magically give them absolute electrical independence (even running air conditioners!) with an investment that will pay for itself in […]
The (Almost) Fantasy of Solar-Powered RV Air Conditioning
We see the questions all the time – people wondering: What will it take to run an RV air conditioner off of solar power? We get asked for advice in email regularly, and see the topic constantly coming up on various forums. (And now the Wynn’s are claiming they’re doing it – they’re not really, see […]
Back to Boondocking: Being Electrically Abundant in a Mostly Electric RV
We’ve seen it advised so many times on RVing groups and forums, if you want to boondock – you have to rely on propane for cooking, refrigeration, hot water heating and heating. If your coach is electrically dependent, don’t bother trying to boondock for long. We say.. phooey to that. It is entirely possible to feel […]
Living the Lithium Lifestyle – 3.5 Year Lithium RV Battery Update
One of the most unusual frequently asked questions we get asked out on the road: “How’s your lithium batteries working out?” We’ve even had strangers come up to ask, occasionally without even saying hi first! But I get the curiosity. That we are using lithium batteries for our RV house battery bank is one of […]
Solar Planning: Conducting An RV Electrical Consumption Audit
We get asked all the time: “How much solar power do I need?” But when I reply with – “Well, how much power do you use in a day?”, I almost always get a blank stare in response. We encounter only a handful of RVers who have any idea of just how much power various electrical devices […]
