FYI - Real-life A/C on inverter power consumption numbers

[Lostranger]

Regarding solar... My plan is to immediately carry a couple of portable panels for charging while I'm parked somewhere, and eventually install some hard-mounted ones to the roof.

Good plan. Solar was the first thing I did on the conversion, but we were living exclusively on a generator at the time. Circumstances alter priorities.

If 5 years seems like a lot of time to be building, I suppose it is....

Doesn't seem bad to me. I worked on our old bus the entire ten years we owned it, and it wasn't nearly finished at the end. As long as you're happy with the progress, who else matters? I can see the allure of being able to throw full time and a small fortune at a conversion, but the "organic evolution" method has its advantages. If I was mostly done now, it would be difficult to go back and retrofit for the APU I've recently decided to use in place of a generator. Adding coils, radiators and related lines will not involve tearing out existing interior. Believe me.

Best of luck finishing by retirement day.

Jim
On the bumpy end of NC

[Audiomaker]

Two quick opinions here...

1.  Even though less efficient, those "peel-n-stick" PV panels sure seem like the ticket for the rounded bus tops.

2. LED lighting...great stuff, but in my home I've always kept partial incandescent.  Why?  Because incandescent lights are dual purpose.  They make light *and heat*.  Coming into summer might not be the best time to discuss this, but I've had several discussions in the past with some pretty knowledgeable folks.
The point I eventually got across to them was that LED's don't save you squat during times of the year when your heater runs because the heater has to work just that much longer to get to the set thermostat temp'.
In thermodynamics, it's all about heat transfer and management.  RV's are a really fun exercise in this.  Incandescent lights are really effective heat wasters, but really, aren't there times of the year when you wouldn't mind a couple hundred watts of multi-source heating with the side benefit of mood improving light during the darker times of year (and...at *night*).

An in-the-know RV'er might have a set of LED's that gets swapped in the first time the A/C gets turned on for the year, and a set of incandescents for the first day of furnace

[Iceni John]

Two quick opinions here...

1.  Even though less efficient, those "peel-n-stick" PV panels sure seem like the ticket for the rounded bus tops.

Don't waste your money and time with flexible PV panels.   They degrade after only a few months of continuous use, and after a year or two they're essentially useless.   Use real PV panels from a reputable manufacturer, either poly or multi doesn't make much difference, and build the correct mounts for them.   Do it right, and you'll have reliable power for several decades.

A rounded bus roof, like my Crown has, actually is a benefit in that it allows one to have the panels down against the roof at close to their ideal summer angle (at least, for SoCal and similar latitudes!), and there's more air space under the panels to help air circulate and keep them cooler.

John   

[Audiomaker]

Don't waste your money and time with flexible PV panels.   They degrade after only a few months of continuous use, and after a year or two they're essentially useless.   <snip>
John   

That's good to know!