We wondered before we left home how our solar panel would perform in keeping our batteries charged, as we visualized having grey, cloudy weather and campsites with views of the sky obscured by trees. The reality has been quite different. We haven’t had more than an occasional brief shower or hailstorm. After the first couple of days, mostly sunny skies. We hope that continues for the next few days at Denali!
Taken at our campsite with no electrical hook-up, this picture is of our solar panel controller after we’d already been charging a computer battery for a 30 minutes. A full charge is about 13.5, a “you’re in trouble” charge is anything less then 12.0. When we went to bed last night at 10:30, the controller read 12.6. The battery actually re-charged overnight, and this is the morning reading above. Now that’s not something we experienced in sunny Baja!
There’s no power shortage here. On the other hand, the season is short this far north, and we suspect during the rest of the year, solar power is of limited utility. Being able to move your home 1000’s of miles seasonally does have it’s advantages.
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