Timeline 1

So, right now I am at the Daytona 500, which if you can hear it in the background, is cars literally going around the track. And interestingly

enough, that's not what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about solar

about today. I want to talk about solar power and how I'm working to try to get more power because I'm here for a full week off-rid. And a lot of people have

week off-rid. And a lot of people have generators and I have been looking at getting a generator. I've been thinking about it, but there are just some downsides to me. One being that I'm a

solo female and I'd have to like lug it out of the trunk. I'd have to open the back door to like have my I have a cat and she just kind of would run away.

But also like having to pick it up. Also

like a storage space when I live in here full-time. The trunk's already really

full-time. The trunk's already really full. So I was hoping for something

full. So I was hoping for something smaller to be able to get some more solar power. Generators also have a

solar power. Generators also have a recurring cost of the gas you need to put into it for it to work. They can be loud, which is fine in a situation like this because there's hours you can have

it going loud. However, I want to be able to use it for more than just NASCAR races. I've been going to a lot of

races. I've been going to a lot of different events where I've been boondocking for a week long, but I also want a solution to getting more power when I'm at like a Walmart camping for a

week or doing something that's more stealth. So, while I like generators and

stealth. So, while I like generators and I'm still kind of thinking about that option, I wanted to try something else first that was more portable, more compact, easier for me to lift and just

something that I already kind of was in the direction of because I'm not a person who goes to campgrounds often.

Like, I could go to a park during the day and pull out a generator, but I feel like I'd be a disturbance. I feel like no one would want me to be doing that and making that much noise. Um, but what I'm going to show you today is quiet.

Yeah, it's going to take up like some space. It's going to ruin the stealth of

space. It's going to ruin the stealth of the vehicle temporarily in that moment.

But if I'm at a park for an afternoon, that's fine. People can know I'm living

that's fine. People can know I'm living in here or whatever. That's fine. But

with a generator, like I don't want to be drawing attention to myself, and I think that this is going to be a better option for me personally. So, I'm really excited to test it out. I actually had

the RV tech that's on hand at Daytona come over and check out how I was wiring it while I did it this morning to make sure I was doing everything properly and he wrote down the company and was like,

I got to look into that. I that's really cool that you can do that. I didn't know they make those. He's like, so he might be getting one for his RV already. So,

I'm excited to test it out, see how it's doing. Unfortunately, as Daytona 500

doing. Unfortunately, as Daytona 500 goes, it is a very cloudy weekend. But I

think that's, you know, that's good to know as well because these are the kind of situations I'm using it for. So, I

want to see if it's going to really be able to help me boondock for a full week, even if it is cloudy. So, let's

get started. I'm excited to show you.

Let's go around back. Also, everyone's

blasting country music and I'm worried about copyright. So, this ends up being

about copyright. So, this ends up being a lot of voice over.

Also, there's race cars going around the track, so noise is I mean, it's beautiful. I love the sounds of being in

beautiful. I love the sounds of being in a NASCAR track, but you might not right now.

All right, so this morning, the RV tech helped me set this all up, and we actually did not wire it into my red AAR system. We wired it into the positive

system. We wired it into the positive and negative bus bars that go into my electrical system and fed it through the MPPPT

Optiplex solar brick S1. Let's play a game of Do you see the solar panel? Do

you see it? No. Cuz it's so small. This

is 400 watts of solar. I have 500 watts taking up over half of my roof space.

So, this is a freaking ton of solar.

That's so cool. I'll never get over it.

Okay, there's some buckles.

I've already been using it this weekend, so it's got some grass on it. However,

these are the anti-shading panels. So,

let's say brass gets on some of it. It's

actually okay and will continue to work, which the ones on my roof are not that way. So, this is very nice. Also,

way. So, this is very nice. Also,

there's a giant zipper in the middle because I could turn it into two 200 watt panels. So, even if I want to

watt panels. So, even if I want to travel with something lighter or carry something lighter, that works as well.

Okay, let's find that. And then from there, I'm going to

that. And then from there, I'm going to take the positive, put it into the positive, and the negative, and put it into the

negative. I'm not going to go too much

negative. I'm not going to go too much into the install because I asked about 10 different people for advice and they all gave me different advice on how to do it and they'd be like, "That last

person was wrong. Don't ever do that."

And I'd be like, "Well, everyone's saying that about the other people." So,

I had no idea what to do. And I

eventually just called a tech, which is why NASCAR is great. You can just come out, enjoy a race, and have a tech come and fix your RV while you're watching cars race. Like, that guy had my dream

cars race. Like, that guy had my dream job. I was like, "Dude, I could be an RV

job. I was like, "Dude, I could be an RV tech at NASCAR tracks." And no one told me that wasn't an option on career day when I was a kid. So, right now, the solar blanket is wired into my house system that powers my whole van. But,

it's kind of hard for me to show you how much they're pulling because I also have 500 watts on my roof right now. And my

system doesn't tell me how much is coming from each source. So, instead,

I'm going to pull out my handy dandy Anchor Sollex C300 DC. And while I'm wiring it up, someone else actually comes over to ask me about the solar blanket. It kind of blew my mind that

blanket. It kind of blew my mind that people were stopping like crazy to ask about this, but I wish I could visually show you what 400 watts of rigid solar panels looks like against this and why

it's such a big deal. I actually own 600 watts of DJI hard panels and I thought about bringing them for the longest while, but I just couldn't justify the space they took up. I actually ended up giving them to my parents as backup for

their house in case of an emergency. And

even in their garage, they still take up a huge chunk of space. I know it's a really really cloudy day and also this Ankor Sollex C300DC has a max solar input of only 100 watts. So instead of

testing for how much power it can pull, which will always change depending on how sunny it is anyway, I want to test their astonishing anti-shading claims. Plus, there's a million videos of this already online with people getting the

max power pulled out and it's totally fine. So, I know it does that, but this

fine. So, I know it does that, but this is what I want to see. Also, right now I only have one side of the panels plugged in. So, I'm not trying to feed 400 watts

in. So, I'm not trying to feed 400 watts of solar into this little 100 watt device. And as you can see, the percent

device. And as you can see, the percent it's charged is actually moving up really quickly. It's currently pulling

really quickly. It's currently pulling 98 watts even with all of these clouds.

So, I'm now going to throw a shoe in the middle of one of the panels. And now

it's still pulling 98 watts. Oh god. Be

in my van. Be in my van. Be in my van.

Be in my Be in my van.

I don't want you in here, sir. What are

we doing? But what about two shoes or two shoe sized things? Well, then it dropped to 97 watts the second the shoe dropped, but then it went right back up to 98 watts. So, now I'm just feeling

like I need to step up my game. But

also, I didn't really know what else to use. So, I got my drill. But that still

use. So, I got my drill. But that still did nothing. So, I got my cat Betty's

did nothing. So, I got my cat Betty's bed leaf and it covers up almost one entire section of the panel and then some. Right away, it drops to only

some. Right away, it drops to only pulling 42 watts. I removed it and it was back to 90 watts in seconds. I then

switched which part of the panel it was on and it was at 44 63 and finally landed on 78 watts. So, I think actually what's happening is that it just needs a second to bounce back after sudden

shading. But that's not really how the

shading. But that's not really how the sun works anyway. So, if it's being shaded by the sun, I think you're going to have that consistent pool. By the

way, I don't know if you can tell, but all of my mics just mysteriously stopped working for this middle section of the video. But what I'm trying to show you

video. But what I'm trying to show you is that my 500 watts of solar on my roof, which I had recently cleaned, are only pulling 65 watts of solar with how cloudy it was at the time. But in that

same time period, the OPI Solex is pulling 97 watts out of 200 watts. So,

riddle me that. I'm thinking I either need to get up there, recclean them, or check the connections because the Opus Seollex is way outperforming my big panels that are normally on my van.

However, my roof panels are not anti-shading. So, I wonder if that is a

anti-shading. So, I wonder if that is a big part of it.

So, right now, my iPad is at 9%.

Let's see how fast it can charge it.

It's like a solar blanket. It's like 400 watts.

I thought it was I've never seen one like that.

Yeah. It's like it's like new technology, I think.

Yeah.

Another feature of this panel, which is on a lot of panels these days, is that you can just plug one individual device into here to power it. So, for example, my TravelFy internet router or a laptop

or an iPad. The entire solar blanket also weighs only about 17 lbs and it is fully waterproof rated. So, this is actually 2 days later. You can't tell cuz I am wearing the same outfit, but

you know what? I wear this all of the time at NASCAR. It's my favorite NASCAR outfit. So, I really wanted to wear it

outfit. So, I really wanted to wear it twice. And I'm an adult, so no one can

twice. And I'm an adult, so no one can really stop me. But anyway, I'm now resetting up the solar bag. That way, I can use it all day, even with my doors closed when I leave the van. And I had an idea about where I can put the wires

until one day I get to making a more permanent solution like a hole in the ground for the wires to fish out of. But

for now, I'm just fishing them out the skylight so that I can keep my back doors closed and Betty doesn't have to stay in her little baby Yoda carrier all day. Overall full review from this

day. Overall full review from this weekend, I would say this setup process was really easy. Why did I need an RV tech's help? Well, just because I didn't

tech's help? Well, just because I didn't realize until I got here that I needed a wrench and I don't I didn't bring one. I

didn't have one. But I mean with the power station, it took me less than a minute to plug it in and be ready. It

came with the solar bag, the solar brick S1, and a 20 foot MC4 to ring terminal extension cable. Lately, I've been

extension cable. Lately, I've been searching a lot for ways to increase my electrical system, and I'm still surprised I almost doubled my current solar system with just this tiny little flat blanket. Eventually, I do want to

flat blanket. Eventually, I do want to find a way to hang it up on the side of my van, or when the sun is in the opposite direction, I could even hang it out on my front windshield. If I wanted to be more stealth, I could probably also put my Max Air fan down and close

my skylight and just lay it on my roof deck. So, I definitely have a lot of

deck. So, I definitely have a lot of options to experiment with going forward and overall the portability of this is just unbeatable. But for now, that's all

just unbeatable. But for now, that's all folks. I'll leave a link and more

folks. I'll leave a link and more information in the description if you want to check this out. And if you want to watch the rest of my Daytona 500 vlogs, I'll leave that down there as well. Thanks for hanging out.

well. Thanks for hanging out.