LED Lighting is a Must When Using Solar to Live 'Off-Grid'

'Off-Grid' beckons to many who live in RVs and Boats as a means for living in a self-sufficient manner without reliance on one or more public utilities, like electrical power, natural gas, water, or waste. Such people are often searching for sustainable living, which they think of as cheap living.

Living off-grid is not necessarily cheap, nor is it simple and easy. It requires planning and work, and probably an investment. A key is to reach a balance in all you do. The need for LEDs is a good example.

In many boats and RV coaches with incandescent and/or fluorescent lighting, the installed lighting uses over half of the total 12-volt DC load on the batteries. When you include the added load on the air conditioners to remove the heat generated by the lights, it is even higher. When you are on-shore -- or camped in an RV park -- it is no problem, but when your primary power source is solar energy from the sun, power consumption becomes an immediate concern and excessive usage can make the difference between staying out as long as you want, or coming back to shore to find a recharge (or running your generator).

My choice of living is a good example. My wife and I operate an LED retail business over the internet while boondocking on the desert floor. We require about two hours of Internet and TV connectivity per day. This typically requires 25 amp-hours each day to power the TV, DirecTV Receiver, Internet Access, Modem, Router, two laptop computers, and occasionally the printer.

Previously, before we had LEDs, we typically burned four to seven 921 bulbs and a fluorescent that produced about 1,600 lumens of lighting for five or six hours in the winter months. This required about 8 amps for 6 hours, totaling 48 amp-hours. I had to plan on our boondocking consumption to therefore total 73 amp-hours per day.

My rig has only 240 watts of solar panels using a solar-boost controller. On average I could expect to recharge my batteries with as much as 45 amp-hours on a good solar day. That meant I could be 28 amp-hours short at the end of the first day, another 28 amp-hours short the second day, and so on for every day thereafter, until my batteries dried up.

But when I switched to LEDs for my lighting, I required only 2 amps to produce the 1,600 lumens, meaning I only needed about 11 amp-hours each evening. Now my solar system only has to replace 25 plus 11 or 36 amp-hours each day, and the 240 watt panels can do that, even on an overcast day. I can even surf the web a little longer each night.

Of course, the Big Guys will have more solar, but they also have more toys and more lights. The same balance is required whatever your size when running 'off-grid'." It all comes down to using LEDs if you really want to stay off-grid with solar power.

I'm the Prudent RVer, and my experience tells me this is so.