[VAC] Solar Panels Up and Working

[gary@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who chipped in hints and techniques
for locating and attaching solar panels to the Airstream roof. I
especially took note of Terry Tyler's encouragement to move slow and
think the process through fully without inturuptions before drilling a
single hole in the skin.

Unfortunately, the first day I had a couple of Fosters to aid the
thinking/slowing process, and so had to abandon the project in favor of
a long nap in the sun on the garage roof next to the Airstream. But the
following day I successfully located and and attached the panels to the
roof.
We've had two terrific thunderstorms since then, and I've not been able
to locate any leaks, so all of that mastic must have done the trick.

Replacing the original Univolt with a 1500-watt inverter/75-watt charger
was a challenge for my limited wiring experience, but everything is now
hooked up and running fine. It's a kick getting 120 AC from the sun (via
the batteries, of course). Now we can run that blender for margarita
hour. To avoid rewiring the entire 12-volt fuse system, I pulled the little

bakelite fuse panel out of the front of the Univolt and mounted it on a
separate tray. Then it was just a matter of routing the input wires from
the new inverter to the inputs that originally came from the battery.

The Heart inverter has a remote control panel that shows charging rate,
amps being used, etc. which was a bear to hook up but lots of fun to
play with. My wife claims she didn't need to know that she could burn
the bedroom and kitchen 12-volt fixtures for 47 hours before battery
flame-out, but that's the kind of info that could come in handy someday.

Thanks again for all of the input. This list has proven to be invaluable
to at least one wannabe fulltimer!

Gary
garymacf@adv-cycling.org