Follow Our Progress
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January 25th 2004
It's been a few days since I was last able to post. Getting
connected to the internet here in Quartzsite is a pain and I just don't
have the patience to sit up all night waiting to connect. This
morning I got on after a few tries, so I thought that I'd post a few
pictures and a quick update on what we've been up to...
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I found a pretty decent charge controller for the
solar panels. I had quite a few to choose from, but
decided to go with one of the few models that could handle the
large Amp load that we eventually will be pulling from the sun.
I ended up buying a Xantrex C60 (60 Amp) model. It displays Amps,
Watts, battery voltage, Amp-Hours and total Amp-Hours to
date. We've been averaging about 60 Amp hours per day the
past 2 days even though there has been some cloud cover for
large portions of the day. |
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We had a short rain storm pass over one of the
sites we were staying at. The sun was on one side of us
and the rain on the other, so we were treated to a very
spectacular double rainbow. The picture here does not do
it justice. It was very vivid.
If you look carefully just above the bright rainbow you can
just make out the second rainbow. The picture makes them
both look a bit washed out because the bright sun caused the
camera to darken the picture a bit too much. |
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I thought that I'd take a couple of pictures of
what the "Main event" looks like. It's basically
a large flea market all over Quartzsite... |
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We installed the solar panels that we bought on the roof of
the bus. The installation went pretty well, although I
learned that it is a lot easier to do most of the brackets and
wiring down on the ground and then lift them into place vs.
trying to keep everything from rolling off the roof and
constantly climbing up and down the ladder (or asking for parts)
that I forgot to take up there. |
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I installed the panels in such a way that they can
be tilted to either side of the bus or secured almost flush with
the roof.
Originally I wanted to put the panels in the center of the
bus or with 2 rows on either side, but after talking with a few
solar experts they talked me into the offset installation for a
few reasons... #1 they're already at a slight tilt, so if
I park the bus in the right orientation, I get a bit better
angle toward the sunlight and don't have to tilt them if I don't
want. #2 When it rains (or if I spray the roof off with
the hose), accumulated dirt and debris will wash off
easier. #3 I can more easily reach the edge of the panels
to work on the electrical or put in the tilt supports. |
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Becky and I bought a pirate flag while we were out
browsing the many vendors in and around Quartzsite. This
lead to the girls playing pirate for most of the next two days
and running around saying "I'll ask ya matey" and
other similarly interesting versions... |
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