Project Choose Your Own Adventure

[ScottyB]

We'll let you know if altitude impacts solar output as well via an 8th grade science fair project

thanks, and i'll be curious to know! we'll get out west soon enough and it would be cool to know what that could do for our power situation.

Some type of step up converter.

Going from 12vDC to 110vAC then down to 24v is very very inefficient.   Going from 12v to 24v is easy cheap and over 90% efficient.
Get a good quality 5A step up converter and carry a spare.

i'm going to do more research on this, although a quick look shows that they seem to be cheap and small which is great. i definitely hate the idea of throwing efficiency away especially in our application. as i mentioned, this isn't something that ever occurred to me, because ignorance. some thoughts:

• the APAP is a lease unit. i definitely don't want to do anything that would compromise it. to supply power, my guess is that i would need to find a plug like the one on the left of this image and then run the appropriate power and neutral lines to the step up converter? anybody know what that kind of plug is called?


• i should have mentioned this earlier but a travel-specific APAP unit called an AirMini is probably in our future as a long term investment since we're committed to carrying on with our camping/travelling dreams and its much more suited to that job. due to cost, its probably a ways off though. with that being the case, i'm not sure how far i want to go down the rabbit hole with fabbing another power solution for the current APAP since its likely temporary. the AirMini also uses a cig lighter charger which would work perfect with the 12v outlet we already have in the cabin. so, the thought on my mind right now is how many days of battery life could i get out of the current 120v AC situation before we'd have to plug in, assuming we had full shade or cloud cover so the solar couldn't charge.

No need for any converter. 2 12v batteries run in series will power that.

this is a great point but i don't have any room for 2 additional batteries as the camper was never designed for this in mind from the start. the tongue box is currently as full as it can get and the cabinet in the galley is already slated for our kitchen equipment.

genuinely appreciate the feedback and ideas. i am flying blind for a lot of this aspect of the build particularly as i have to pivot after the new power requirements. i think for now, with a much smaller and DC-powered travel APAP in the future, my goal is figuring out the least painful way to power the current APAP knowing that we aren't going to do any hardcore camping in the first year away from too many power sources (either plug in or solar exposure).