Recently, the family and I packed up our Sprinter van and head south for a break from winter. Now our Sprinter van has become our trusted home base while on the road, racing and training and includes some modest sleeping arrangements for Sara, Amelia, and I as well as much appreciated convenience items namely a heater, stove, refrigerator etc. Until recently near the bottom of the list was the roof mounted solar panel. While I could appreciate what the solar panel was providing for the van it was difficult for me to label it as being either necessary or of great convenience. In fact prior to our trip charging the multiple batteries on the van had been accomplished almost solely by plugging into a 120 power source or via the van engine alternator.
This would all change when of all things the alternator opted out of making the round trip. Indeed, all was pleasantly perfect as I declared we were officially in the middle of nowhere to which the van responded with flashing dash lights and after some diagnostics a toasted alternator. As it would turnout, I may have played a bit of role in the toasting part, pushing the alternator to its 150 amp breaking points while running the water heater, tv, dvd player, stereo amplifier etc. all at one. But that is neither here nor their; the issue at hand was I had a sick van in the middle of nowhere and if not for the one low priority accessory solar panel we may have become a desert feast. Thanks to our ability to harness the sun’s power we managed to limp nearly 1000 miles home using the battery storage and sun’s rays.
Reflecting on this experience it is remarkable to think of the ways in which we can harness the powers of our natural environment to complete everyday tasks or in my case rescue a family vacation. I now have a few vehicle improvement projects sitting in front of me. First, I will be turning the top of the Sprinter van in to one big solar panel and for redundancy I will be mounting a sail mast.
This adventure aside what is the next step in our progression of harnessing energy? Perhaps I am on to something with this wind powered car idea. Just imagine full sails away as we merge on to the freeway, up with the windmill and we are cruising to our favorite tunes. What ever day task can we do right now more effectively and with less impact via alternative energy and or use of advanced electronics?
