Missing the ambulance

I must admit, there are times when I miss the ambulance/camper conversion. The other day a bunch of ambulance conversion videos popped up in my YouTube suggestions. There were some pretty good ones. Then I think back at all the money I would have had to put into mine. That takes some of the sting out of letting it go.

One of the features that was really useful was being able to dry camp just about anywhere. When traveling it was nice to be able to stop somewhere, crawl into the back and get a good night’s sleep. My lovely wife and I saved a fair bit of money on hotels.

The Chevy Blazer lacks that ability. Sure, theoretically we could fold the backseat down and stretch out in the back. The problem with that is what the heck would we do with our gear? Right now our camping stuff pretty much fills up the back.

However, we will be towing the boat. We could pull into a an overnight parking spot and spend the night in the boat’s cabin. We even have the use of the boat’s head if we needed it. It’s not something I’d like to do for too many nights in a row, but it would work well enough for a trip from New Hampshire to Florida.

The van’s solar electric system and refrigerator/freezer was moved right over to the Blazer. I’ve been using it all summer. It’s pretty neat being able to do groceries and not worry about frozen food thawing out. When set to freeze it had no difficulty keeping ice-cream frozen all day. When grocery stores are far way, that’s a neat trick.

Sometimes I get nostalgic about the ambulance. We had a great seven years with it and loads of adventures. However, I try not to get to attached to vehicles. It was time to move on.

-Sixbears

New 12 Volt Cooler

Just got in an Alpicool C15 dc compressor cooler. The old thermoelectric cooler is going to land in the next dumpster I come across. Unlike the old cooler, this one is supposed to be a lot more efficient. I paid $199 on Amazon. Because I'm not sure about its long term durability, I spent a few dollars more and sprung for the four year warranty.

Actually, it's not just a 12 volt cooler. It runs on 24 volts too, plus comes with a regular 120 volt AC cord. My house solar electric battery bank is wired up for 24 volts, so I should be able to run it without using the inverter. That's a lot more efficient.

By the end of the month we'll be back to camping at campgrounds without electric power. The little cooler will get a good test then. On paper, my van's 100 watt solar electric system should run it just fine. It's fifteen liter sized. While that's not huge, it should be larger enough for some fresh veggies and meats. Unlike a normal ice chest cooler, all the space is usable as there's no ice crowding out the food.

Speaking of ice, it's not just a refrigerator. It can be turned down low enough to freeze. I was able to freeze a jug of water with it. Some people use these little machines with a normal ice chest. They freeze a block of ice and keep transferring it to the ice chest while keeping a few frozen foods too. Pretty clever, really.

One thing you should be prepared for is a poorly written manual. It's obviously written by someone with only a casual knowledge of English. Another problem for Americans is that everything is in metric, both manual instructions and the controls on the unit. I had to look up the conversion to figure out it needs about 8 inches of air clearance in the back and four inches on the side. Temperature settings on the cooler are in Centigrade. Just remember that zero is thirty-two in Fahrenheit and you'll know if you are setting it to freeze or cool.

The reviews I've been able to find have mostly been by people who've only tested it for a short while. I'm hoping to give a long term review after it gets a good field test.

-Sixbears

Refrigeration on the go

The veggie van has a good sized 12 volt cooler. It works well, is solidly constructed, and has plenty of room. The problem is that it's a thermoelectric cooler. Those work using a Peltier plate module that directly turns electricity into cold and heat. One side of the module gets cool and the other side gets hot. Usually there are heat sinks and a fan to dissipate the heat. The big problem with these is that they are power hogs, usually drawing around 6 amps of power. That's a lot.

It's fine when my van is running and it's plugged into the van's 12 volt circuit. Most vehicle alternators have no difficulty keeping up with the demand. The problem is that if the cooler is still drawing power when the car is off. It can kill your starting battery in a few hours.

My van has a 106 watt solar panel charging a separate 12 volt battery. If it's a sunny day the panel can just about keep up. Of course, the battery is drained when the sun goes down. The next day the panel cannot run the cooler and put much power in the battery. The cooler is well insulated so sometimes I can get away with just unplugging the cooler during the cool nights. When the sun comes up it's plugged back in. I can get away with it off-grid for a few days, but by then the battery is getting low. Heaven help you if it's cloudy or your solar panel is shaded by trees.

They do make more efficient coolers that are actually mini refrigerators with small low energy drawing compressors. Not only do they use a lot less energy, they do a better job cooling and often can even be used as freezers. Thermoelectric coolers never have that capacity.

The problem is that a decent thermoelectric cooler can often be had for around $100. Even entry level compressor types are at least 4 or 5 times that price. That's the only thing keeping me from changing over. Even with the price difference, I'm very tempted to upgrade to a compressor type. Much depends on how primitive we decide to camp this coming winter. If we stay at a campground with electricity, it's easy to use a 120 AC to 12 DC converter.

The best part of having an electric cooler is not having to deal with ice. It didn't take me long to get sick of having to always hunt down expensive ice that melted and made my food soggy. If I want to deal with ice I could always stay home in New Hampshire during the winter.

-Sixbears

Life without AC

There's not air conditioning here at the Sixbears homestead. Supposed to hit around 90 and humid today. That's nothing by Texas standards, but most folks in Texas have AC.

On the bright side, it was 57 degrees this morning. The trick is to leave the windows open at night and close them in the morning. Thanks to all my shade trees it generally stays fairly livable in the house. If it gets too bad we can always take a dip in the lake.

Saturday's storms took down a lot of trees and power lines. Plenty of folks are still without power. Some of them will be in for a tough time. We didn't lose the grid, but our solar electric systems could get us through all by themselves.

Refrigeration is a significant power draw for most people. However, the giant water coil installed in my refrigerator helps a lot. Cold water from my well runs though that coil every time a drop of water is used in the house. Not many wives would let their husbands experiment with major household appliances. Good thing most of my experiments work. There is sometimes a problem with condensation on the coil, but a towel takes care of that in short order.

The resources of my little camper van conversion are also at my disposal. The solar electric panel on the van's roof can power the 12 volt cooler a long time. It also has a 1000 watt inverter to provide additional power if needed.

Thanks goodness I don't live in a city's heat bubble. The combination of heat, humidity and bad air would do me in.

-Sixbears

Update on copper coils

I do a few weird projects now and then. Folks might want an update on how they are working out. Here's a couple reasons why I buy copper rolls by the box.

This a pretty common use for a copper coil. This coil is wrapped around the stovepipe of my woodstove. On the other other side of the wall is a standard 40 gallon electric water tank. The coil is connect to the bottom and then the top of the water tank. That allows normal convection currents to transfer heat from the woodstove to the water tank. It wasn't getting quite hot enough for my liking so I added a second coil directly behind the firebox that then fed into the stovepipe coil.


The electric elements in the water tank are still fully functional. However, the tank is on a switch so I can turn them off. That saves a huge amount of electricity. The woodstove alone raises the freezing cold well water to about 100F. A short boost from the electric elements brings the water to 120F. Standard electric hot water tanks are normally a big part of a home's electric usage.

Another power hog is the regular electric refrigerator -especially if it's a number of years old, like mine. Unlike other refrigerators this one has a huge copper coil in the middle of it. Every drop of ice cold water used in my house first travels through the refrigerator coil. It's so effective that I can unplug the refrigerator and food keeps just fine. However, I still want to use freezer so the unit is plugged into the grid. In spite of that the coil appears to be greatly reducing power usage. Should the grid go down, my well pump is powered by my solar electric system so I'd still have refrigeration. That system was actually tested for over month with no grid power. Worked fine.

My Home has a moderately sized solar electric system. Still, I've decided to keep the grid rather than run a backup generator. It does allow me to be lazy. For example on warm days I'll often use electricity to cook with. I do have an outdoor propane stove, but bad weather and bugs drive me back inside. Another big power draw is electric power tools. Sure I could do all those jobs with hand tools, but there are only so many hours in the day. Many of them I like to spend fishing instead of doing things like hand sanding.

Keep in mind that New Hampshire has some of the highest electric rates in the country. In spite of that my last electric bill was $40. Only half the bill is actual electric usage. The other half is delivery fees. It would be a whole lot higher without the magic of my copper coils.

-Sixbears

Camper van solar electric

The last major improvement done to the van before the snow started falling last fall was the installation of a 105 watt solar electric panel on the roof. It's connected to the largest 12 volt deep discharge battery Walmart had. As I was making the final electrical connections the snow started to fall -barely got the job done in time.

We've put the system to a fair test. It allows us to camp on non-electric campsites. Our big power hog is a large 12 volt cooler. Good quality DC refrigerators are more efficient, but cost 5 to 10 times as much as the cooler. As it was, the cooler was given to me. One good thing about the cooler is that it's well insulated so we can often can turn the power off at night and it's still cold in the morning.

Besides the cooler we charge cell phones and power a 200 watt inverter. The AC from the inverter runs my c-pap device that I use for my sleep apnea. My laptop is a tiny netbook computer and the small inverter charges it up just fine.

The system has worked well enough that we've booked 5 more nights in campsites without electric power.

That's not to say there aren't a few things I'd like to improve. The cigarette lighter type 12 volt plugs are horrible. They can get loose, fall out, and are easily broken. The plan is to replace some with 2 wire trailer plugs. Unfortunately the local stores are out.

Another improvement would be installing a switch that would allow the solar electric system to charge the van starting battery or the van to charge up the solar battery. In the short term I suppose I could just carry a long set of heavy duty jumper cables. The van should have a good set on board anyway.

Right now the system is good enough, and that's what really matters..

-Sixbears

Spring house to my house: Version 1.0

Our well water is cold all year long -painfully cold. In the days before refrigeration many rural folk had spring houses. A little house would be built right over the well, with the bottom open to the cool waters underneath. My well would be a fine candidate for a spring house. The only problem: it would be a heck of a walk down the hill every time someone wanted an apple or a cool beer.

Hence, the indoor spring house.




The copper coil in the refrigerator is connected to the house water supply line. Any time anyone uses any water at all, cold water circulates through the coil. The water comes from the cold well through a water line buried deep in the ground. From the time it enters the basement until it gets to the refrigerator the line is insulated.

My lovely wife suggested converting the existing refrigerator rather than build a separate cool box. Yes, my wife let me take a perfectly fine functional major appliance and turn it into a glorified ice box. I love that woman. She's as crazy as I am.

What do we do if we are going to be gone a few days and no one uses any water? No problem. The refrigerator is still works. All I have to do is turn it on. Since it would be the only thing running while we are away, the solar electric system should keep up with the power draw.

This is Version 1.0. These things tend to get modified as I go along.

-Sixbears

Of copper coils and things

The copper coil is wrapped around the stovepipe of the kitchen woodstove. There's a water tank behind the wall that it feeds. The good news is that it does warm the water. The bad news is that it's not quite hot enough for a shower. However, it is warm enough to do dishes without getting frostbite. That's an improvement. I'll let it run overnight and see exactly how warm it gets.

If it's still too cool I'll add a copper loop directly to the back of the firebox and then feed it into the stovepipe coil. One of the dangers of this type of water heater is getting the water dangerously hot. I rather err on the side of caution. The days have been mild, so the woodstove hasn't run especially hot.

The mild weather is knocking down the snow. The warmer temperatures, plus heavy rain, is causing some flooding. My house isn't in any danger, being on a hillside.

There's still snow around my house, but that resource will soon be gone. Resource? You might ask. Indeed. The refrigerator hasn't even been plugged in since we got home. To conserve power, we've been harvesting snow and using it like a big ice box. That has worked surprisingly well. Of course, now that we are “post peak snow,” I have to make other arrangements.

I've been working on a design that will greatly reduce power needs for refrigeration -should it work. If other distractions are kept to a minimum, it won't be long before I post pics of that project.

However, distractions keep popping up. I'm in the process of cleaning out a storage unit. My daughter left a lot of stuff behind when she moved to California. I don't know why she even bothered getting a unit. There's only one thing that she wanted to keep. My lovely wife and I are picking through some of the stuff. We've offered the rest to friends and family. If they don't want anything it's going to be abandoned.

We are well into New Hampshire's 5th season -Mud Season. The yard and driveways are a mess. Once things dry out a bit, the debris from a harsh winter will get cleaned up.

At least I'm not bored.

-Sixbears

Refrigeration revisited

Before we started out little sailing journey I looked over a lot of refrigeration options. None of them quite fit the bill. Power usage, price, quality, size and overall hassle factor were all considered. Finally my lovely wife suggested that we do without and just eat out more.

Overall, that pretty much worked out fine. When near civilization, we did eat out now and then. There was a small cooler on board, but it only kept food cool for a day or two. When we bought fresh food, we made sure to cook and eat it right off.

Some food items like apples and carrots lasted well enough without refrigeration.

It possible to eat healthy using canned and dried goods. However, I did wake up one morning dreaming about salads. When next we shopped I bought a big container of washed greens and ate them all up between dinner and breakfast. Yes, I even had salad greens for breakfast, while they were still fresh.

That being said, when we get back home I plan on ordering a good quality high efficiency marine grade portable refrigerator. So what's changed?

Well, for one thing, out house is now completely off grid. Having a high efficiency DC refrigerator for household use makes sense, especially when we can take it with us on the boat when we leave. After living without refrigeration, even a small marine unit will feel like luxury. Combined with a small basement root cellar, and eventually a spring house, it should be sufficient for day to day use. When we do have a lot of company, we could fire up the big conventional fridge for temporary use.

Marine refrigeration isn't cheap. When used only a few months a year, it's hard to justify the cost. However, since it'll be used both at home and on the boat, it's easier to spend the money.

Maybe I just want to have the occasional cold beer . . .

-Sixbears