Boondocking 101 - Energy Saving Tips
We are currently living off the grid full time and only using solar and propane for our energy needs. We do not have a generator, and we continuously monitor our batteries, to ensure we are are not using more energy than we are solar panels are generating. Something to keep in mind - our solar generates more power during the day than we can store. If you do not have enough storage, it does not matter how many solar panels you have and how much you generate throughout the day. We could fix this by purchasing more batteries, however we are currently not needing any more energy with just the two of us. In the evenings you will slowly drain your batteries as the sun is down and the solar panels will not be making any more energy until the next day.
Read Next: How Much Solar Do I Need
How Can I Make My Stored Solar Energy Last Longer?
Charge your devices during the day. As soon as our batteries are back up to 100%, we charge all of our devices that we will need for the rest of the day (laptop, tablet, watches, phones, hot spot, etc.). We have enough solar that we make more than we need during the day, so our batteries typically stay at 100% until sunset, even with all of our devices plugged in.
Use solar lanterns, rechargeable battery operated lights, USB lights and/or LED lights in your RV. Our RV lights do not use a ton of energy, but during the winter, when the days are short and the nights are long, using energy efficient lighting helps quite a bit. If our RV batteries are running low, we turn on our battery controlled fairy lights (found here) our solar lanterns (we love this brand here), and our USB powered lights.
Use a laptop or tablet instead of a desktop computer. I’m guessing most people are not traveling with a giant PC, but we were actually considering it. I prefer to work off of a desktop, but not only would that be a huge pain to travel with, it has to be plugged in at ALL times while being used, using far more energy than a laptop that holds a charge. We travel with a laptop and a tablet instead.
Run your RV refrigerator off of propane. In our travel trailer, we do not have a choice - our RV fridge will only run off shore power or propane, but some RVs come with a 3 way fridge that will also run off of solar. Our micro RV fridge uses very little propane and we always have in on.
Use your electronics (such as TV, DVD player, game console, etc.) during the day. Same concept as charging during the day time. Most RV TVs are tiny (ours came with a 27” and uses very little power) and the DVD player that came with the RV uses very little energy as well. But if you are struggling with maintaining your battery life, this is an easy fix.
Use your USB outlets in your RV instead of the inverter. Not all RVs have this option (especially older ones), but ours does and we use the USB outlets often. Converting power from DC to AC uses more energy (what the inverter does) than just using DC (what our USB ports run off of). We also run a mini fan off USB, a light, and our smart watches.
Turn off your inverter when you are not using it. We always have our inverter turned off at night when we are no longer using it and turn it back on in the morning when our batteries are 100% charged. The inverter also takes energy to run.
Use your stove instead of the microwave. Our RV has a microwave/convection oven combo but we never use it off of solar because uses so much energy to run. We cook everything on the stove now using propane.
Monitor your batteries. Our RV has a very simple battery monitor that shows if our batteries are full, 2/3 full, 1/3 full, or empty. That just does not cut it and you will most likely need something more accurate. You can use a charge controller that has BT capabilites (we have this Renogy 40A charge controller with the BT module) that uses an app to monitor. We have heard that this is still not 100% accurate, as the charge controller is not directly connected to the battery. You can also purchase a battery monitor that connects directly to the battery, and either displays with a separate screen inside your RV, or via BT. We chose the BT route, not wanting to drill more holes, run more wires, and mount more things in our RV. We are currently using the Victron SmartShunt battery monitor. This ensures that we know exactly where are batteries are at all times when we are in our RV, and if we have more energy to spare to watch a movie or play a video game.
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