This past weekend, I did some boondocking at Shenandoah National Park, and I had some friends with me. We prepared food outside and ate around the picnic table, played games, etc and needed some light around the table. Instead of carrying a gas mantle lantern with me and burning expensive fuel, or using a portable lantern with expensive propane or white gas, I tried something different....I had a group 24 marine battery that I had leftover from when I swapped over to golf-car batteries in the trailer. I took that battery, and connected it up to a 300 watt power inverter. I then used a ordinary household lamp with a 13 watt compact Fluorescent bulb in it. That gave just as much light as a gas light, and without the heat. I also had a small oscillating desk fan I plugged into the inverter to keep cool with too while we hung out. Using these two appliances barely used any power off the battery at all, and the next day, I connected my 50 watt solar panel to it for recharging. After the inital cost of the components which I already had(the power converter, battery, solar panel, etc) this comes out considerably cheaper in the long run than using gas lights!
Also, another cool idea I had was that I went to the hardware store and bought some LED solar landscaping lights. As evening wore on, and others started turning in, I had the solar lights going, which don't give out massive amounts of light, but just enough to see where you are going comfortably so you won't run into the awning rails, tree stumps, etc I recommend putting 6-8 of these around your campsite to see at night with, especially because they are so cheap and easy
TV: Mint 1972 Ford F-250 XLT
TT: 1969 19' Excel; entertains 6, feeds 4, sleeps 2 You don't shoot to kill, you shoot to stay alive.
I don't carry because I have to, I carry because I get to. I like new things-
- when they're 40 years old! My pictures
yep, I noticed 16oz propane bottles are about $4.00 now, and a price of coleman fuel for a liquid fuel lantern is about $6.00....I can "fill" a deep cycle battery for a few pennies at home with a charger
We use the garden solar lights all the time. It is amazing how much light they do put out if you are at a CG with no artificial lighting. We use them at Assateage Nat. Seashore CG which is pitch black out at night. Looks pretty cool too.
Don't like the view?? Then change it and Go Camping
I purchased a 2000 watt Honda generator last year while dry camping in Key West, it runs for 15 hours on one gallon of gas in the low setting that will provide Hundreds of watts of power to run most items and charge the RV batteries. The main generator in the RV (5500 watts) uses about a gallon of gas every two hours at 50% load so I prefer not to use it except in cases where I must have A/C. The RV plugs right into the socket of the Honda and it is not near as loud as the big generator.
I have changed out all of indoor lights to either 12V fluorescent or LED. By far the LED's are the most efficient. The best LED's are the 2x2 squares with the appropriate connector that you are swapping out, these pull about .1 amps. I also changed out most of the outdoor lights to LED that are generally left on while we are outside. I have four small amber LED's tucked under the awning, the main door light (2x2 amber) and one under the steps that provide quite a bit of light. All of them together pull .9 amps and of course can be left on for hours without affecting the batteries. I put the AA powered fluorescent lights in my storage compartments, remove the batteries and soldered leads on them to connect them to 12V power, these lights only take .4 amps each and provide a lot of light for stuff at night. I don't worry a lot about leaving a few lights on I have four AGM UPS batteries mounted on the front of the camper and one in a mostly enclosed box for the generator on the back I have 125W of solar to replenish with during the day. I also have a Honda 2000 to run the microwave but rarely use it. TV and dish receiver run off of a 400W inverter for watching the news, the TV doesn't get used much we generally don't have time for it.
04/04 F350 Dually Lariate, 4x4, CC, LB, Auto, Firestone air bags, Bilstein shocks, custom on board air system, cat back 4" Aeroturbine muffler. Two place over head ATV rack, third ATV in the bed.
Four Winds 27BH
I picked up a solar path light from Harbor Freight last year on one of their sales for $5. I have done some test runs but have not used it on a camp out yet. Looks like it will be ok for mood lighting but not much else.
We also carry an Off Mosquito Candle Lantern. If it is buggy we put in a mosquito stick in the top (good for 10-15' of mosquito thinning most times), if not we just use it for a little light. I found that the small votive candles will fit in the plastic holders that the Off candles come in and are cheaper if you are just using them for light. We do care some brighter LED lanterns when we need them but usually don't get them out, we like it dark when we are camping.
Offline
