Day 72, Tuesday, December 31, 2019 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 23

December Soler Panel Outpu

A bit warmer over night, but still cool during the day, at least for Quartzsite. Today's high was 59°F. There was mixed sun & clouds, enough sun so I managed to refill the batteries by 2:30.

A relaxing day in the trailer most of the day. I did go for a long walk up the large wash this morning, but quit before too long - walking on the fine gravel is tough.

I thought about making a trip to Parker to do some needed shopping & because I'm bored, but decided it can wait until Thursday. I spent the day reading forums, and posting a report in a thread on lithium batteries on my solar experiences here at Quartzsite for the last 21 days. Since I don't have much else to write about, I'll stick a copy here:

For anyone interested, I can give some user data on a combination of 480 watts of solar & a pair of 100 amp hour Battleborn lithium batteries here at Quartzsite, AZ. The data was collected by the Victron bluetooth readouts for both the solar controller & the battery monitor. While it is obviously conditioned on the solar conditions, which, of course, are variable, it might give users some "real world" idea of what they can expect from a system. I consider myself a "heavy" user of power - typically 50 amp hours per day. I usually make a pot of coffee, often microwave breakfast or dinner, use an electric toaster, and set the furnace at 60°F (it has been cooler than usual this winter)

I have 2 160 watt rooftop panels tilted for the correct angle for Phoenix, AZ for mid January. The trailer is aimed a bit west of due south. I also have a 160 watt portable panel that I shift 2-3 times a day to "follow" the sun. Batteries are charged through a Victron 100/30 MPPT solar controller. Since lithium batteries stay in the bulk mode until 95% filled, and only spend a few minutes in the absorption mode, unlike lead acid batteries, the full output of the panels is available at the batteries until they are filled.

While so far this winter I have not depleted the batteries to the point where I had to run a generator, after a 3 day stretch without enough sun to put the controller into the float mode, and being down 54 amp hours, I ran a small propane generator for 4 hours to bring the batteries back to full (and do a monthly generator run). This was probably not necessary, although the prediction was for another 3 days of heavy clouds. The lithium batteries can be safely drawn down to 10%, so I could have gone without the generator, but I needed to run it anyway, and I tend to be a bit conservative.

This has been the coolest & most cloud covered winter I've stayed at the Q over the last 4 years so the results would probably be better under more usual conditions. This is for December 9 - December 31. (21 days). Today (the 31st) is obviously not finished, but as of 11:00 AM I'm putting 91 watts into the trailer, had a peak of 195 watts, and collected a total of 250 watt hours (it is cloudy). Still down 49 amp hours for the day (I did not reach float yesterday).

Peak solar wattage - 423 watts. Minimum solar wattage - 42 watts. Peak KW hours collected - 1.49KWh. Lowest watt hours collected - 140 watt hours. # of days the controller never received enough sun to get out of the bulk mode - 7.

# of days the batteries reached full - 15. Largest discharge - -72 amp hours.

The image above is the December solar output. White = Bulk, Gray = Absorption & Light Blue = Float.

I spent the rest of the day reading. Current book is Fleishman is in Trouble, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. A strange tale of life after divorce.

Dinner was another chicken leg & thigh and coleslaw plus some steamed vegetables.

Until Next Time -

Day 71, Monday, December 30, 2019 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 22

I walked to the 76 station, along with my neighbor for coffee. After that it was a quick breakfast & some on line reading. I decided it would be a good day to call Spectrum (my internet supplier back at the stick & bricks) to drop a 10 channel TV over internet package. It is only $29.99 per month, but I don't watch TV, and my son, who picked out the channels found he is only watching one of them, and his new TV gets a whole bunch of free channels.

WARNING - CABLE TV RANT!!

So, I first tried on line. No way to drop a portion of your service from the web page. Tried Chat - you cannot drop any part of your service through Chat (Of course you can easily add services using either the web page or chat). So, I called. They had a number of options, including one for dropping service, so I chose that. "Your wait time is between 22 & 28 minutes." 30 minutes later I reached a customer service representative. Guess what? The service rep can't drop a service but needs to transfer you to someone who can - remember, this is the rep I reached choosing the menu tittled - "Drop Services".

Another 25 minute wait (I do wish I had started all this before I read my on line forums) to reach a young lady who's primary answer to everything was "Cool Beans". During the 3-4 times I said I wanted to drop the "TV Services" package from my internet (and she did ask why - I told her I didn't watch TV) she kept trying to sell me a Cable TV package. After I finally convinced her that I didn't want the cable package with 200 channels + Home Box Office & Showtime, she gave up and tried to sell me a cell phone package. It took many "NO's!" but after another 15 minutes, I think the package is dropped. They sent me a confirming email, but I won't believe it until I get my next bill.

It appears that Spectrum has one of the poorest customer service ratings in the industry, and I now understand why.

By the time I got done it was noon, and I headed to the Laundromat to do a couple of loads. Very busy, but I didn't have to wait for a pair of dryers. Most of those of us sitting around were complaining about the cold - even in the laundromat with 30 gas fired dryers cranking away it was freezing. I was planning to remove my sweatshirt & toss it in the wash, but it stayed on. While waiting for my dryers I took a shower, then sat in a somewhat warm corner. When I went to check to see if the dryers were done someone was standing up against the doors of my set (I had a top & bottom dryer in the same row) keeping warm!

So, I'm now back at the trailer with the clothes put away and still, at 3:00 in the afternoon, burning propane to keep the trailer at 60°F. It is also cloudy - I only managed to put 380 watt hours back into the trailer by 3:00, although I didn't use all that much last night so I'm up to 90% on the batteries.

Dinner was a chicken leg & thigh and coleslaw.

Until Next Time -

Day 70, Sunday, December 29, 2019 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 21

I'm getting tired of these cold nights (and days) this year at Quartzsite. 30°F last night, 48°F at noon, and a high of 56°F. At least the 25 MPH winds of yesterday are gone. I did sit outside for a bit during the afternoon, calling my son & Don & Anne back east. It is raining in Oswego, so things could be worse. Then again, Anne let me know it was 72°F in South Carolina where they are visiting their daughter, so it could be better.

I didn't do much else during the day. I walked over to photograph the progress on the Big Tent, but there is little difference from the last picture.

My current book is an actual book by a SiFi author I've never read - Connie Willis' Doomsday Book, a Hugo & Nebula Award winner.

Around 4:00 I headed to Silly Al's for a pizza for dinner. They make a Vegetable Deluxe that, among the generous supply of toppings, includes cashews. I would never have thought that cashews on a pizza made any kind of sense, but they do. Silly Al's is usually very noisy, so I ordered take out, however it was pretty quiet today. Gee, two restaurant meals in a row - I'd better get back in the groove of desert camping!

Until Next Time -

Day 69, Saturday, December 28, 2019 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 20

I took a long morning walk around the campground, but didn't go for coffee at the 76 station. Cold at 38°F at 8:30 AM, but lots of sun. The solar panels finally got to put back three days worth of usage - 1.42KWh into the trailer & batteries, which started the day down 72 amp hours. They were full by 2:30.

I spent most of the day as usual, reading both on line & my Kindle. Current book is A Beginner's Guide to Free Fall by Andy Abramowitz. At first, not my type of book, but it grows on you.

I did fire up the water heater to do dishes since I made lots of dirty ones making bacon & pancakes for breakfast. As usual, when there is a wind blowing against the water heater it sets off the CO detectors in the trailer. I've done everything I can think of to seal the outside from the inside, but is is still a problem, particularly today since it is still cool out & opening up the trailer to let out the CO sure cools it down quickly.

That was about it for the day.

Dinner was a trip to the new Chinese restaurant. While they have a very limited menu, what was available was good. You got to fill a Styrofoam container with Sesame Chicken, vegetables, fried rice & a spring roll plus some additions I couldn't name for $10.00. Two kinds of soup. Eat in or take out - If you ate in, you could keep going back, then fill the container to go home. I just went back to the trailer with a full container, but there were a bunch of folks that were chowing down.

Until Next Time -

Day 68, Friday, December 27, 2019 - La Posa West LTVA, Quartzsite, AZ, Day 19

A Different Kind of RV

I went for coffee this morning with my neighbor. We chatted about some of the similar things in both our jobs before retiring; things like the NEC requiring the shift from welding cable for 120V power connections to SC Entertainment cable. Stuff that few can appreciate! He worked in the generator industry supplying carnivals & fairs.

I stopped by one of the more unusual RVs in the campground for a photo yesterday. I've seen tiny houses on trailers (BLM does not allow anything that doesn't have wheels), a large, live in boat on a trailer, but this is the first limo camper I've seen anywhere. They do have a small cargo trailer, but I suspect they sleep in the limo.

A cloudy cool day. A bit of sunshine crept through around 2:30, but the rest of the day was producing less than 80 watts from the solar panels. I did manage to bring the batteries back to 80%, so I'll skip running the generator, at least for today. I spent the day reading, including two terrible books. While I have discovered some very good authors & reads using Amazon's Prime Unlimited, and it is well worth the $10.00 per month they charge, there sure is a lot of junk out there. Hard to tell from the titles, or even the reviews, although I'm always suspicious of reviews from individuals or even other authors. Real organizations such as the NY Times or Kirkus Reviews tend to be more honest. The most recent book was Gregg Olsen's If You Tell, non-fiction about a family abused by the mother. Stephen King couldn't write anything more gruesome.

That was pretty much it for the day.

Dinner was a trip to the Friday All-You-Can-Eat Cod fish fry at Sweet Darlene's. I usually arrive around 3:45, and they start serving at 4:00. I got tied up trying to put one of the puzzles my kids sent back together and didn't leave the trailer until 4:00. What a difference! Instead of getting a seat as I walked in the door, I had a 25 minute wait. Very crowded! There is a 4:00 rush, although by the time I left around 5:00, there was still a line at the door waiting for seats. Puzzle & Sweet Darlene's photos at today's LakeshoreImages page.

Until Next Time -