So, what should I do? ~ 2 comments
So what will I do? The app on my phone tells me that even though I have 500 watts of solar panels on the roof, the highest wattage I get for the day is 176 watts per hour, which isn't very much for 500 watts’ worth of panels to be putting out. And if the panels are partially shaded by things on the roof during the day, it’s easy to see why they're only putting out that much as a maximum. Imagine how little they're putting out for most of the day.
Now there's nothing I can do about the sun being too low in the sky during the winter, and there's nothing I can do about my rooftop having lots of shadows on it, and there's no more room on the roof for any more panels, so I'm pretty limited in ways to fix this problem.
The only things that come to mind that would help fix this problem would be .....
1... Buy a cheap, noisy generator that will turn what few neighbors I have against me.
2... Install a DC to DC alternator charger.
3...Deploy solar panels on the ground.
4...A large dog running on a treadmill that turns motion into electricity.
5…Install a windmill that produces electricity.
6….Stop using so much electricity.
Although each of these thoughts has pros and cons, it sounds like the idea with the most pros and the fewest cons is putting small solar panels on the ground. I definitely don't like the idea of packing and unpacking these things every time I move. But that's less of a problem than taking a big dog out to go to the bathroom multiple times a day.
theboondork
Happily ensconced at the Yuma, Arizona, VFW boondocking area.
This guy has his solar panels pointed towards the sun, so that he gets more power from them than I do with my panels flat on the roof. And I could do the same thing if I wanted to.
But If I climbed up on the roof and moved my Solar panels around every time I went somewhere, what do you think my chances of survival would be?
1....I would probably Survive .
2....I might survive.
3.....Dead man walking.
This is the kind of solar panels I'm thinking of getting. Dealing with them will be somewhat annoying, but at the moment, electricity is more important to me than the annoyance.