Electric or Propane for your Appliances in Next Bus

[luvrbus]

Some are into solar big time me I don't want the stuff covering my roof,hard for me to understand people spending 1000's of dollars for solar and batteries on bus one uses for a few weeks out of the year, I see in campgrounds RV's covered with solar and plugged in to 50 amps, then it's their money they are spending not mine

[Dave5Cs]

Jim how do you get diesel delivered to the bus in an rv park.

We have a 200 lb tank on the ground and they fill it when we call them. Had it top with about 70 twice last winter because of the heater and stove but mostely the heater.  Summer last all season plus into November. We also have 4 2olb tanks for when we are moving. Summer lots of electric for AC's. Summer I cook outside on flat top and bbq.
Solar 1500KW when on the road or not plugged in with 4024 inverter and 8 , 6 volt seal batteries.

[windtrader]

Generators are loud. Propane is quiet. I like quiet.

Jim

Batteries - silent!

Some are into solar big time me I don't want the stuff covering my roof,hard for me to understand people spending 1000's of dollars for solar and batteries on bus one uses for a few weeks out of the year, I see in campgrounds RV's covered with solar and plugged in to 50 amps, then it's their money they are spending not mine

Clifford, you crack me up sometimes. How on earth can you make such judgemental statements with no basis? It is about as out there as claiming 90% of RV owners make no sense spending stupid amounts of money to do the same thing.  Anyway, I am into solar and batteries and the freedom of fully off grid capability. Just came back from two weeks at a campground that had hookups. Never needed to plug into it. 100% self contained. that is very satisfying in itself, not counting the masssive amount of money saved researching and DIY.

[luvrbus]

Batteries - silent!Clifford, you crack me up sometimes. How on earth can you make such judgemental statements with no basis? It is about as out there as claiming 90% of RV owners make no sense spending stupid amounts of money to do the same thing.  Anyway, I am into solar and batteries and the freedom of fully off grid capability. Just came back from two weeks at a campground that had hookups. Never needed to plug into it. 100% self contained. that is very satisfying in itself, not counting the masssive amount of money saved researching and DIY.

RV's are not all buses I see the solar on 5th wheels ,class ABC and tag along trailers setting only used a 2 weeks a year.Don I have friends with solar, batteries  and inverters that cost more than people pay for a nice converted bus and seldom use the damn things ,spending that amount of money and it doesn't add not 1 dollar to the value of a RV. Now 10 days are you total electric,fridge ,stove.microwave and using AC ? if you are 10 days is great

[chessie4905]

My conversion is all electric. I'm  installing a vertical suburban 38k furnace in old ac bay. The stove is two electric units. May change over to propane there also. But seriously considering inductive units. I like propane furnaces, because they are reliable, and require little maintenance. Also don't  need a Webasto or Aqua hot guru when problems occur. I'm  still on the fence on the small diesel heaters, as I've  followed them on the Facebook site, and they can have their issues too, even the best ones. If propane doesn't  provide enough heat, I can run Generator and use toe kick heaters to supplement, plus heat strips in rooftop units. I do have a defroster unit though with a brand new core, which costs about $425 bucks a few years back. Radiator shop had to call his supplier with dimensions to get it, Han matches original core, including number and size of rows of tubes. Besides, I don't  camp in below freezing weather any more. Mostly plug in in campgrounds. We are members of Boondockers and their other one, but in our two summers of extensive travel in tt, only used it twice. Always felt like a freeloader at them or buying something there was almost as much as a campground.

[luvrbus]

My conversion is all electric. I'm  installing a vertical suburban 38k furnace in old ac bay. The stove is two electric units. May change over to propane there also. But seriously considering inductive units. I like propane furnaces, because they are reliable, and require little maintenance. Also don't  need a Webasto or Aqua hot guru when problems occur. I'm  still on the fence on the small diesel heaters, as I've  followed them on the Facebook site, and they can have their issues too, even the best ones. If propane doesn't  provide enough heat, I can run Generator and use toe kick heaters to supplement, plus heat strips in rooftop units. I do have a defroster unit though with a brand new core, which costs about $425 bucks a few years back. Radiator shop had to call his supplier with dimensions to get it, Han matches original core, including number and size of rows of tubes. Besides, I don't  camp in below freezing weather any more. Mostly plug in in campgrounds. We are members of Boondockers and their other one, but in our two summers of extensive travel in tt, only used it twice. Always felt like a freeloader at them or buying something there was almost as much as a campground.

   
I would Elk hunt for 2 weeks in Idaho for years and always went in a RV with propane furnaces they would get the job done at 20 to 0 degrees ,My AquaHot will suck some fuel at 0 degrees the BS of .48 gph or average of 6 gals aday in fuel is out the door mine will use 10+ gals of fuel a day when it is 20F or lower

[freds]

Since my ultimate goal is chasing 70 degree weather around the country and going heavy in on solar I went pure electric on my bus.

[luvrbus]

Since my ultimate goal is chasing 70 degree weather around the country and going heavy in on solar I went pure electric on my bus.

70 degrees perfect no air conditioning or heat required ,I am total electric  ,I could make 3 days with my 1100 amp hour AGM battery bank then it would be about 6 hours of generator time

[Glennman]

This reply is probably along the lines of the philosophy of converting a bus in general rather than the subject of electric vs. LP but covering the roof with solar panels and installing lithium is what it's all about for me. Between the independence from connecting to a pole and the solar panels being suspended a minimum of 3" above the roof (providing shade), I don't have much more money invested in my conversion than that I would have paid for a similar stick and staple unit. I haven't really tallied up what I have in it, but my guess is about 40k, including the bus, the panels, batteries, everything. The LP gives more freedom (longer periods without charging, etc.). We stayed 6 days without hookups in Weiser Idaho and could have easily stayed another 6 days (the batteries fully charged by 7:30 am each morning). The only thing I came close to running out on was water and waste capacity (nothing a run to a dump station wouldn't take care of). It will be interesting to see how it fares in cold weather, cloudy days, running heat, etc, but I am having a great time with it this summer!

[windtrader]

What works for me likely does not work for you. I'm more like Fred, chasing the 70 degree dream zone. I don't need to equip up to be parked in Phoenix for days on end, nor do I have to put up with freezing weather for days on end. Some may say I'm cheating because when I say off-grid ready, there are limits to that. Plus, most of us have taken on a bus conversion that was mostly or all done, meaning it had provisions for heat, cooling, and cooking and cold storage.
For example, mine came with a full on Webasto diesel heating system. I have no intention of pulling it out and replacing with electric. It works just great for those nippy mornings to take the edge off. I do have propane to run the stove and refrigerator. I run the Starlink 24/7 and that gobbles up 2kw alone. The electric hot water gets turned on for about 40 mintues once a day to get the water nice and toasty. No reason to let it cycle 24/7 keeping water at some too high heat. There are no adjustments so only way to control it is on/off. AC runs off batteries but not for hours on end. I gues it could but frankly I've not studied precisely how much solar is left over after charging batteries to use the excess to let the AC just go and go. It's all work in progress and balancing act between generation, storage, and usage. The compromises I have made are more than made up by the capabilities and freedom enjoyed by doing it.
As to costs, I'm not one to spend money I don't have to get something. The new LiFePO4 battery is 7kW and costing me about $1200, all in. Batteries, shipping, wiring, etc. Anotyher $125 for the BMS and the pack is done. I picked up a used Victron 3Kw Quattro inverter/charger for $750, new they are $2,000. Panels run about $200-$400, varies if new/used, capacity, location, etc. So for about $3,000 all in I have 7kW battery, 3kw pure sin wave inverter, and 1800 watts of panels. Feel free to buy a 1200 watt battery for a grand. I'd rather than over 7000 for the same. And so goes for the rest of the components and pay 100 an hour for labor. Yeah, you'd ba at 10 grand to write a check for what I have going.

[luvrbus]

For lookers and buyers that want total electric buses I see Ritche Bro has some electric powered transit buses up for auction. I wonder how you could charge one if used it for RVing

[Jim Blackwood]

Glen brings up a good point about shading the roof with the solar panels. That alone has to be worth a decent amount of cooling capacity.

Jim

[chessie4905]

Keep in mind, these western temperatures cause a decrease in power output.

[Tedsoldbus]

Debt has a propane stove and Rita loves it. Propane furnace that works great. Absorption fridge we are used to and like very much. No solar panels and prefer not to do that.

I approved the following message and it is NOT meant to be political. Just an observation.

Coming soon there are states where it may become difficult to find propane without looking hard.

[luvrbus]

I looked at solar for the shop,but it gets so hot here they loose about a 1/2 % of their out put with any heat over 77 degrees,120 degree here sometime greatly reduce the output.Then he tells me expect 5 to 7 years life span so I passed on the free solar because the replacement panels were on me.The guy was a county rep so he didn't have any marbles in the game as for selling panels