Electric Dreams

When you're camping out in the wild away from civilisation, there are only really a few things you need to worry about, apart from having enough petrol to get around and not getting shot by rednecks who want to wear your skin.

Water

Our RV - any RV, in fact - has 3 water tanks:  Fresh water, grey water and black water.  Fresh water is obviously what comes out of the taps and shower. Grey water is basically anything that goes down the plug hole (washing up, water used in the shower, etc).  Use your imagination to figure out what the black water one is for!

If your fresh tank gets too low, you can fill up from the mains / city water taps at campsites, truck stops, etc.  if your grey/black tanks get too full, you need to find a "dump" station (too easy, make up your own jokes on that one!).

Propane

Our cooker, heating and fridge freezer all run off propane (the fridge runs off electric when we're plugged in somewhere), so this needs to be kept topped up.  A tank lasts quite a while though so we haven't had to do this yet.

Electricity

It's fair to say that I got slightly obsessed with this, because I know how much electricity we use at home each month.  It's mainly the result of me working from home a lot.  Or more specifically, sitting there every day surrounded by computers and monitors, with quality daytime programming like "Murder, She Wrote" and "Homes Under The Hammer" on TV in the background.

In our RV we're basically running off two 12V batteries, which deplete pretty fast when you have enough mobile devices with you to rival the average Apple store and you need to keep them charged up.  Plus the occasional bit of TV use.

Your batteries do charge off the engine when you're driving and when you plug in at a campsite to use mains power.  You  can also use your on-board generator, but that creates noise and drinks fuel.  With our average MPG so far being around 8.5 I was keen to avoid this, and we didn't want to be dependent on campsites all the time.

The other option is to use solar power to get a charge into your batteries.  So we decided to try and get some panels installed.  I did some research online and found a company in Florida that a lot of people recommended, Palmer Energy Systems.

After we bought the RV this was our first stop.  They're based near Mayo to the north of where we were at the time so that worked for us.  I was expecting some kind of industrial unit on the outskirts of town, so was pleasantly surprised when we eventually found the place and the scenery looked like this:

 

We soon got talking to John Palmer, the owner, who filled us in on the setup and took us for a tour.  Essentially John works as a caretaker of this huge expanse of land, and has done an immense amount of work carving out pathways and clearings in the overgrown jungle.

He also happens to be an expert in engineering and electrical systems, so he runs Palmer Energy Systems from here too.

He and his son Pat live there full time in their own RVs, alongside various other vehicles and trailers, which contain his stock and most of which he built himself from scratch.  Like this beast:

I think he took the engine from something else, modified it and then built everything else around it, every bracket and rivet.  He showed me the progress photos they took during the build.  It took him about 6 months all in all, alongside all his other work commitments.

If I attempted this, it would probably take me years and I'd have a few less fingers at the end.  Also, when I do DIY, I often find that even the worst words in the English language don't adequately characterise the level of rage I'm feeling when things don't go to plan.  I can usually invent at least 3 new swear words just by attempting to install a new curtain rail.

I told John my big ideas for the solar installation and he invited us to stay a couple of days and figure out what we actually needed.  We were happy to take him up on the offer considering how stunning the surroundings were.

We were also glad to find someone so welcoming and non-pushy.  John was easy to talk to on a technical and non-technical level and was committed to giving us the right solution rather than just selling us the most expensive thing he had.

In the end, we decided that we'd be moving around enough that spending extra money on solar would be overkill.  We opted instead to replace our coach batteries and install a new inverter/charger which would allow us to plug our devices into the normal 110V sockets in the RV, and do a much better job of managing the battery charge than the old, manufacturer-installed charger.

If we were planning on keeping the RV longer, we probably would have splashed out on the solar stuff, but it wasn't really cost-effective for our purposes.  The batteries are normally full by the time we've driven to our next destination.  If we stay a while and get low, we can use the generator for an hour at most to recharge.

We ended up staying for a week before moving on again. One night we walked through the forest along the river and the trees were constantly illuminated by thousands of fire flies, which was very cool.

We also got stalked by the local wildlife.  Here's a slightly Blair Witch-esque video of when Sharon heard an alligator prowling towards us through the undergrowth (the video might not work on iPhones / iPads):

Obviously I was ready to jump on it and wrestle it into submission as soon as we caught sight of it.  Unfortunately it just turned out to be some kind of small armadillo hunting for bugs, so no alligator steaks for dinner that night.

It turned out I was able to help John with a few things as well, like updating his catalogue and prices on his website, so at least I gave something back too.  Once an IT consultant, always an IT consultant!