Thursday, February 2, 2012

Solar Powered - Day One

7:15am - Got up on the roof as the sun was cresting the local hills and tilted my solar panels for the first time in order to catch the maximum sun exposure. The process took less than 5 minutes. They can be tilted to the passenger side, or to the driver's side. Mike and Lisa (The RV Guy, Inc.) are attending their AGM for this SKP park, and will be back over at our coach sometime this afternoon to complete the installation and to give us a little instruction on the use of our system.

7:35pm - Last night our installer had me turn off the converter/charger so I could monitor our usage during the evening and early morning before the sun came up. We are still plugged in for our major AC appliances (TV, microwave, electric heaters) but everything else is off the house batteries since last night. Tomorrow we will turn on the inverter and start to experiment with the larger appliances to see what our electrical draw will be, and what we can use, and how long. To me this is the fun part. We will get to know our electrical system, and what the possibilities are for living off the grid as much as possible, and how many of our bad electrical habits we can live with....lol!

The sealant was applied this afternoon around 3pm, so we must sit still for another 24 hours before we can move the coach, which means we will not depart SKP Jojoba Hills until Saturday morning.

Elaine and I spent another couple of hours in the trailer securing everything that might come lose and hit the T'Bird. On Saturday, when we leave, Elaine will once again follow me back into Temecula where we will find a large parking lot to check out the interior of the trailer to be sure nothing has shifted, or come lose. If all is good then we will load the 'Bird in the trailer and head to Indio where we will spend a couple of days with an old friend, and take in the Super Bowl. On Monday we will get back on I-10 and head into Arizona....Mesa, AZ specifically, where we will spend a few days with a good Newell friend who is providing our replacement refrigerator, and who will help me install it. After a few days there we are off into Texas.

After we worked on the trailer Elaine did some laundry, and I started washing the coach....first time I have done that in a few years. I say "started" washing the coach, because I ran out of gas after doing the driver's side, back and front. Tomorrow morning the passenger side will be done before the sun gets too high in the sky. We had planned to have it washed before we left Rancho Jurupa, but it was very windy for several days prior to our departure, so it never got washed. I hate driving a dirty coach, so when we leave here on Saturday it will be clean again!

Thank you for stopping by today!


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