Randyretired

We have Hughesnet at our mountain property because that is or was all that was available. It is sloooow and expensive. The data is limited by the plan you choose. More data equals more cost. The equipment for a mobile setup also isn't cheap or simple to use. I will get off my soapbox now.

Cost? EV's are coming on strong but the power to charge these vehicles is going to take some time and a lot of money. The ingredients to make things like the batteries is another hurdle to cross. China currently has 85% of the rare earth minerals to make the batteries and the price of those is rising faster than inflation. There is currently a shortage of lithium for instance and the price of batteries is going up quickly. I just ordered some batteries from China and before I will get them the price for future orders has already increased. Batteries are the most expensive part of EV's and to have enough batteries to recharge an EV at night would be very expensive. Because there is a loss to transfer power from one battery to another battery the first battery will need to be larger than the power transfered. I am not saying EV's are not coming. They are! However, it going to take some time and a lot of money to support these. I don't think most people are planning for that. Vladimir listed some prices for his solar that are scary high. My solar projects have not been anywhere near his figures because I DIY but it still isn't cheap.

Great looking project. It looks like fun. We have a 12k mini split and just love it. It also works to take the chill off in the morning. We boon dock a lot and found we needed more battery. 800ah @12v now and will add another 600ah for this coming summer. 2000 watts of solar.

I am wondering about your batteries. What type and size of battery do you have? 500ah batteries would not be typical RV batteries. Also the loads you have calculated seem high. The freezer runs for a period of time and then goes idle for some time before the cycle repeats. The energy guide should detail the total amount of power annually. From that the amount of power per day can be roughly calculated.

Solar panels are relatively inexpensive. There are even some used panels available. Santan Solar in AZ has some pretty good prices on used and new panels to start your search. Finding the right size panels to fit your area takes some time but my recommendation is to buy as many panels as will fit. A charge controller will be needed and an MPPT controller is best It will change the voltage from the panels to meet your batteries needs. This allows the use of higher voltage panels. One thing is that 12v circuits need fairly large wire to carry power even short distances. For larger solar setups the batteries to store the energy can be the most expensive items but if you only need to keep your batteries charged that isn't an issue.

Our freezer is one from Best Buy and like many the energy guide shows just how much power they use. The power requirements are small and usually easily powered with a PSW inverter. An inverter and if you want some solar should do it. Should be a lot cheaper than an RV freezer. Years ago we had a propane powered freezer. It worked well but it was expensive and very small.

We have a 3.5 cuft freezer in our 5er. We power it and a residential refrigerator off of solar. We mostly boondock.

I replaced the sofa in our Teton. In and out through the door but NOT easy.

The Colorado River drainage has gone from 51% of normal to 122% in 2 weeks. That is a lot of snow over a short period of time. Some areas received over 10' in a week. The Rio Grand drainage is still slightly below normal but the heavy snowfall recently has increased it a bunch. It is very near average. Of course March and April will define how much water will flow.

Since non of the arrays on my RV are the same size as you said using the same controllers isn't always practical. You mentioned BMS's and I have seen some bad things when the charge parameters exceed the BMS parameters. Once a BMS cuts out during charging a voltage spike is likely. Suddenly removing the load of the battery causes the voltage to spike until the scc can react. I have seen spikes in excess of 20v on a 12v system. Additionally scc can be adversely affected when solar charge voltage is present without a battery. It is usually best to keep charging parameters well below the BMS parameters.

John, Since charge controllers are voltage limited even controllers from different companies work well. I have mixed scc on my system and it has performed flawlessly. I have also combined AC powered chargers to supplement my solar when needed and that has also worked well. I have even used 2 AC chargers along with the solar with great success. I could add here that the charging parameters need to match the batteries but that is needed for any chargers.

Multiple controllers is a common and acceptable method of charging. I have 3 different solar chargers on my RV battery bank. Solar charge controllers are voltage regulated and as the batteries reach the regulated voltage no additional power can be fed to the batteries. It is true that one controller may dominate near the end of charge, additional power would lift the voltage beyond the regulated maximum so more can't be used anyhow. In practice I typically see the controllers sharing the load as maximum voltage is reached. Some large solar/battery systems may have many controllers. That is needed because the controllers are amperage limited. Large solar arrays can produce a significant amount of power.

The best is to use identical panels. If not then the voltage or the amps need to match depending on how the panels are wired. If in parallel if there is a diffence in voltage the lower voltage panel will drag all the others to that voltage. If in series the amperage needs to match or the lower amperage drags down all of the panels. Separate controllers is a good answer to panels that don't match.

I wouldn't hesitate to take that route as long as the weather is good. I have driven it many times. Hwy 13 out of Rifle

Our Xantrex is still working after 15 years but I had override some of the internal checks after just one year. Actually the first Xantrex failed in a couple of months and was replaced under warranty. Your Renogy sounds like a good unit. The 2,000 watt inverter coupled with our mini split and residential refer manages to use most of our 800ah battery as it is.

We have a 2000 watt xantrex inverter. We run the mini split, residential refer and one other high draw such as a coffe pot or microwave. Occasionally I wish we had a 3000 but not enough to change out this one.

I haven't looked to see which tires. I received am email about a recall and we have tires involved in the recall. The email included a number to call. I will follow up on Monday or Tuesday. I put the tires on a little over a month ago but we have decided to not go south this year so, no hurry. Edited to add that I don't remember the manufacturer date but I remember it was fairly recent and not 2020.

I received my letter today. Just put those tires on and not one mile or even one revolution. I guess I will deal with it after Christmas.

The USPS data base isn't always up to date. For more than a year our address as assigned by the county indicated that our address was invalid. We would have to instruct businesses to mail to that address anyhow and we received our mail. At least most of the time. I called USPS about the problem but they said it will be updated sometime and until then our mail would be delivered.

https://finance-yahoo-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/finance.yahoo.com/amphtml/news/retired-why-stocks-not-bonds-215033388.html?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a6&usqp=mq331AQIKAGwASCAAgM%3D#amp_tf=From %1%24s&aoh=16388987095112&csi=0&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Ffinance.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Fretired-why-stocks-not-bonds-215033388.html Interesting article

With bonds paying what typically amounts to negative returns we don't have any. We are more aggressive than that but tend not to hold individual stocks either. Years ago we made a 500 index fund our core and mostly hold other index funds. We try to keep a couple of years of expenses in a cash fund. This is just the basics needed. As for the market including the S&P500, the gains of late have been over average and this market has been positive for many years. Certainly a correction or more is coming but when? How long? Most of our funds are not in tax sheltered accounts so selling is a major tax event for us. In any case we just hold what we have and ride the highs and lows. That has been our methods for several years. I am comfortable with our funds but that isn't a recommendation. It just fits us. In the past I tried some options and individual stocks. Some recommended and some I just liked. However, the index funds have returned a nearly equal amount, the index funds are less volatile and tax friendly. Again this is just my experience. Others are more or less aggressive with various results.

Between some construction equipment and an HDT I end up with some larger amounts of oil. At the local dump they have a recycling center. They always gladly take all of my used oil. I just use the containers the new oil came in to carry the used oil. They even take the containers.

When the inverters are working hard they put off a fair amount of heat. Enough that I crack open the front compartment on warm days. My batteries are in an insulated compartment that has some vents to the interior. The inverter is in the next compartment also vented to the batteries. That seemes to keep them plenty warm enough but I haven't been in temps below 20F. I put some warming pads under the batteries but so far haven't needed them. My BMS's also have cold temp disconnect.

It is becoming more and more common that people are leaving assets behind that could have been spent. For many of us we have at least some fear of running out of money and so we conserve. Often planners say they find people who have more than adequate wherewithal to spend more but don't. I still find myself thinking about every purchase even though we have the funds. For us as we age our want list is smaller so we tend not to spend much beyond our needs. I would have liked to have had a little more when we were younger in what some call our go go years in early retirement but for now we are comfortable. Our savings are still growing. Maybe even enough to keep up with inflation.

Chances are if you prefer it that way someone else will too. As long as it isn't crazy different I would do it. I really doubt what you described will impact the resale value as long as it is looks good.