How Much Battery Does Your Inverter Eat?

We posted an earlier blog entry on the wonders of using shower power provided through the media of an inverter. An inverter is a device that changes battery power into something more edible to devices like power tools, computers, televisions, and such.

Like everything else in life, there's no such thing as a free lunch, and if you use your microwave to heat yours, there is a certain and fearful toll to be taken. The more "shore power" your device uses, a LOT more battery power will be consumed. Let's take our "Nuke me some lunch!" scenario.

Let's say your RV microwave oven uses 1,000 watts (check out the data plate on the back of whatever device you're using) to operate. To heat up a couple of plates of last night's leftovers, let's say you'll be operating the microwave for 5 minutes. How much battery power will you "eat" for lunch?

The formula is quick and easy: Battery amp-hours consumed is this: (AC Watts/12) x 1.2 x time of use (in hours). Our microwave operates at 1000 watts, divided by 12 equals 83.3 times 1.2 (the inverter isn't completely efficient, so this factor allows for inefficiency). That equals 100. We multiply this against the usage time, 5 minutes divide by 60 gives us the "hours of use" of .083. The total amp-hours consumed in reheating lunch equals 8.3.

That may not sound like a whole lot, but if you were charging your battery with a 100 watt solar panel, it would take over an hour of strong, full sunlight to "pay" for heating up your lunch. That doesn't even take into account battery charging inefficiencies. This is one of the reasons you'll see serious boondockers running a rooftop full of solar panels.

So before you start firing up the inverter, run some quick calculations and see if you can 'pay the inverter piper.'

Big Free Camping in the Big Sky State

Montana license plates may well bear the slogan, "Big Sky Country," the state has struggled--and continues to--with an appropriate slogan. More on that in a minute. Happily, the state is a big place, and it offers some outstanding boondocking locales for those who travail those long miles.

With 145,000 square miles of land--and an average of only 6 folks on each of those square miles--might explain the experience of one tourist. On being chatted up by a local, the visitor says, "My, you folks are sure friendly out here." The local thought for a minute and responded, "It's not that were all that friendly, we're just lonesome!"

Up in the lonesome upper central part of the state, 26 miles northwest of Winifred (population 151) lies Judith Landing. Shaded by cottonwood trees, the landing is a free BLM managed place alongside one of the designated "Wild and Scenic" parts of the Missouri River. There isn't much here: A grove of trees, a fishing hole, and plenty of quiet. Maybe that's a good thing--if you're looking to get away for a few days, this might just be the place you're looking for. For more information on the BLM area follow this link.

Of course, you can look around those cottonwood trees to see that big canopy of stars. Which takes us back to the Montana slogan problem. Years back, about 1895 the first "official" slogan for Montana was "The Treasure State," dubbed for the quantities of gold and silver wrested from Montana soils. Nevertheless, in 1922 the World Almanac--apparently without intending any irreverence--hailed Montana as the "Stubbed Toe State," pointing to hazards novice hikers might encounter when sojourning through some of the state's higher mountains. Tourism officials would gasp.

By 1940's state highway map printers would introduce, "High, Wide, and Handsome" as a more fitting reference--and that's where it stayed until the 1960s. "Big Sky," came into vogue, and onto license plates. Why mess with a good thing? Apparently tourism officials haven't seen that light--at last break they were trying out "EZ 2 LUV" Unlike McDonald's--I'm not luvin it. You can read the whole story by following this link.

Photo courtesy Montana State Travel

Use Your GPS to Find Boondocking Spots

More and more RVers are embracing GPS (global positioning satellite) technology, and it's getting easier for us to find our way around. While "map and compass" ability is something all of us should be able to fall back on, this high-tech navigation system has opened boondocking vistas in a way never before possible.

Witness Andrew Koransky's boondocking.org website. Andrew has built a clever, on-line database of great places to boondock. For example, want to know where you can boondock tonight? Enter your present GPS coordinates and a "look inside this distance" figure, click a button, and the database will spit back listings of locations where you can hunker down.

Descriptions of what you'll find are included, like this one "Water Canyon, in between Magdalena, NM and Socorro, NM on US 60. Very Large Array (VLA) Radio Telescope is an hour away or so. There is a free campground with easier access for small RVs and short trailers on the way to this 4wd site. Although named water canyon, there was no water to be found."

In addition to descriptions, there are handy, immediate links to "MapQuest" which can show you detailed maps of the location, or satellite views to give you an idea of what the location looks like, the topography, and views you might enjoy.

Got some of your own favorites? Andrew's database allows you to enter coordinates and descriptions. It's a great database, and we can all pitch in and make it even better. Visit the site at http://www.boondocking.org/

From Tent to RV--And 49 States

Did you hear the one about the boondocking tenters who thought an RV might be warmer? Well, it's all true. After waking up in Nova Scotia one cold November morning, Joseph and Betty Knoch thought maybe an RV would be a warmer way to go. So the tent went, and a small Class-C motorhome came into their life.

At first they mixed "business" with pleasure--using the motorhome to work a 7-state business territory where they sold orthodontic supplies. But somehow, traveling that wide-open territory that boondockers are so fond of got into their blood. On the road to Alaska they decided to "retire" and see the country. Indeed they have: 49 states are now under their tires, and they'd have done the 50th if there was an economical way to get the motorhome to Hawaii.

The price of fuel is to be accounted for, but it hasn't stopped them. They told a reporter from the Columbus, Ohio Dispatch, ""But you don't buy (an RV) to save money. You buy it to go where you want, when you want, sleep where you want, eat where you want. It gives you the ultimate flexibility." There's no doubt that the rest of us boondockers would agree. Read the full story here.

Photo, Columbus, Ohio Dispatch

We Know What Lone Ranger Did With His--How About Yours?

It's a problem that doesn't get much play--but what do you do with the trash? Many "boondocking" locations just don't have a handy dumpster or trash can for you to toss your junk, so what can you do with the refuse of living?

Limiting the amount of "stuff" is a big start. Where we can, we recycle. In states where a deposit is charged for aluminum cans or other containers, there has to be a way to "redeem" it. Checking the local telephone book yellow pages under "recycling" will often yield a place where you can sell back those commodities. We were really thrilled once in Oregon to find a "recycle" machine outside of a grocery store where we could drop in aluminum cans, then get a "chit" back we could exchange for cash inside.

Many boondockers save waste paper and use it to start campfires; or where it's safe, simply burn the waste paper. If you're out in the boonies for an extended period, holding on to food waste can pose a problem--you don't want to attract trash feeders, and you don't want it stacking up inside the rig. Some clever boon'ers carefully bag up the small food waste and stuff it in their freezer until they head back to civilization.

On the road, what's to do? By keeping the waste stream small, you have less to dispose of. When we travel we generally have less than a 'Walmart bag' of trash a day, so when we skate into fuel up the rig, we simply pop the bag in the trash barrel at the fuel island--we've never been troubled about it. If you get in deep with a large amount of something, well, check and find out where the local transfer station or dump is. I know, it's a bit weird to roll into the dump in Slo Joe the Motor-Home, but hey, you do what you need to do.

And if you missed out as to where the Lone Ranger took his trash, you can click here to download the theme song. Then simply transpose in, "To da dump, To da dump, To da dump, dump, dump...." OK, so we weren't born yesterday---a lot of yesterdays ago.