Solar Dreams

We've done quite a bit of research on putting a full solar charging system on our MoHo. It will allow us to stay in out-of-the-way places, dry camp and "boon-dock" without needing to hook up or run our generator, pretty much ever. This appeals to us, as we never liked being near RVs with generators ourselves, and those RV parks with hook-ups are generally pretty fancy, crowded and expensive - not the kind of experience we are really looking for.

So we've been doing lots of research and think we've figured out what we need in order to live off the sun. Here are some great websites that helped us figure it out, and three companies we are considering for the work (who also had lots of help and information about solar on their websites):

• Phred's Poop Sheets,
• Electricity from the Sun - Is it for You?
• The 12 Volt side of Life, and
• 12 Volt Side of Life, part 2
• RV Solar [NOTE: RV Solar has since gone out of business and taken down their website, but if you want to use their information sheets, you can use The Wayback Machine to view archived pages],
• RV Solar Electric,
• Discount Solar

With all these great resources, and the fact that our RV already came with an inverter and 4 house batteries, we are ready to go solar!

Now, where to get it done? We had pretty much decided on RV Solar who are located in Bend, Oregon. We didn't necessarily want to make a trip to Bend, but on their website they say they go to Quartzite every winter!

Now, Quartzite is an RV Mecca. It has a population of about 5,000 in the summer, which swells to around 500,000 (omg!) in the winter - all from RVs!!! And of course, the businesses that follow them, like RV Solar. There is apparently a lot of BLM land designated as Long Term Visitor Use Areas there. You can buy a permit for staying the whole winter for $140!

Wall-to-wall RVs is something we would have avoided like the plague before... but now, it seems kind of interesting to just check out. Most of the people there are full-timers, or at least "snowbirds" - people who "fly south" for the winters and stay long term in warm, sunny climates, like Quartzite. But the thing that is interesting is the community - all that knowledge of long-time RVers - there are seminars and classes, workshops, and all sorts of services aimed directly at RVers, and especially long term RVers. So there are lots of solar installation companies there, and other types of businesses.

So we were planning to go to Quartzite to have RV Solar do our system, but they aren't going to Quartzite this year!! I liked them best because of their website - excellent information, fun, and when you click on the about us page, they look like a bunch of hippie outdoor types - my kind of people!! Sigh. Either we will have to make a trip to Bend (where we can visit my ex - how convenient!) or settle for another installer in Quartzite.

RV Solar mentioned Discount Solar, and also said there are an awful lot of installers down there every year that are pretty fly-by-night, so to be careful. We may go with Discount Solar - they spoke highly of the owner, which is nice.

We also have the option of having our local RV Service/Repair company, J&L do the solar - and they get their supplies from RV Solar Electric, which is in Scottsdale, but doesn't do their own installation. But we like the idea of having it done AT the company that specializes in solar, so they can give us a more thorough orientation and we can be sure we are getting the best setup for us.

So now it's down to a trip to Bend and RV Solar, or a trip to Quartzite and Discount Solar.

Decisions, decisions!!