Friday, December 10, 2010 - Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM

Prickly Pear, Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM, January 22, 2009

Some thoughts on winter boondocking and power consumption

I've been watching where my power consumption is going. Running off just the battery I can turn things on & off and read the ammeter and see what draws significant power and what does not. It surprised me to find my 15 inch MacBook Pro and the portable hard drive I keep my pictures on are by far the biggest power users in the rig. Here's what I'm finding:

Most everything runs off 12 volts.

• There is about a 0.4 amp drain by the idle systems. ( 10 amp-hours per day)
• LED lights run about 0.2 amps apiece. ( maybe 2-3 amp-hours per day)
• The music system 12v speakers I can't even measure. ( maybe 1 amp-hour per day)
• Everything else - the intermittent stuff like water pump etc takes maybe 1-2 amp-hours per day.

So that's roughly 15 amp-hours per day to run the house.

I don't use much 120vac (at least I didn't think so). The main thing I use it for is to charge the MacBook Pro and, through it, charge the iPod Touch and iPad. And run the portable hard drive.

• The Inverter draws about 0.5 amp at idle. ( 12 amp-hours per day if left on 24/7 )
• The MacBook Pro and portable hard drive draw 2.5 - 3.5 amps almost continuously. ( maybe 70 amp-hours per day if left on 24/7)
• The WiFi router runs about 0.5 amps. ( 12 amp-hours per day if left on 24/7 )

So that's roughly 90-100 amp-hours per day to run the computer and WiFi 24/7.

With the sun low in the sky this time of year I can capture only about 20 amp-hours per day from my solar panels. Deducting the 15 amp-hours per day to run the house from that leaves only about 5 amp-hours per day to run the computer etc. That's good for about an hour and a half of computer & internet time.

I had no idea the computer was such a relative power hog. It's a real challenge to keep them shut down - I'm addicted to the convenience of having them always on and training myself to shut everything down when I walk away is proving to be quite a challenge.

[Update] I added a page to my Lazy Daze Section to expand on this power consumption and it's implications for long term winter boondocking. The new page is over at Winter Boondocking.

Night camp

Site 9 - Leasburg Dam State Park, Radium Springs NM

• Verizon cell phone service - good signal
• Verizon EVDO service - good signal
• Go to Leasburg Dam State Park website
• Locate Leasburg Dam State Park on my Night Camps map
• Check the weather here