How to conserve your resources when camping

When camping or boondocking for any length of time, conservation of resources becomes extremely important.  The main things to be concerned about are your water supply, propane, and battery life.

Because we enjoy the solitude of nature and love to listen to the wildlife, we don’t bring a generator with us.  Our Lance 845 truck camper has a 50 watt solar panel mounted to the roof to help recharge our Group 31 deep cycle battery.  This set-up is typically all we need to get by for a number of days without being plugged in, and without having to charge the camper battery via the truck battery.

During our three month road trip we put 10,801 miles on the truck.  Doing so much driving allowed us to recharge our Asus netbooks and our digital camera with a 12 volt DC to 120 volt AC inverter quite often.  We chose the Asus EEE PC 1005-HA-P netbook for a variety of reason, but one of the most critical feature for us is the 10.5 hour battery life it provides. The inverter was invaluable and we definitely couldn't have done without.

Universal solar chargers are a great option for charging cell phones, MP3 players, and digital cameras.  Three to five hours in the sun will provide up to an hour of talk time on a cell phone, and you never know when you may need to make an emergency phone call only to find out your cell phone battery is dead.

Inside the camper we made a simple change to assist with limiting the amount of battery usage.  Geoff installed touch lights throughout and we relied on these in the evening along with 3 small LED lanterns rather than run the house lights.  One mistake that we made however, was choosing touch lights with incandescent light bulbs rather than LED bulbs, and these went through batteries far too quickly.

For people who want lights outside their camper, we recently stumbled across these Solar Shoji Lanterns that fold flat for easy transport.  We're thinking about using some of them around the yard at home too. 

Because we were trying to go easy on propane use, we found it much easier when cooking to make one skillet meals rather than using 2 or 3 burners on the stove.  There were only two of us, but we cooked for four to ensure leftovers that could quickly be heated up the following day.

Gaiam.com carries a Sport Solar Oven that we'd love to try out.  We prefer to be outside as much as possible but cooking over a campfire isn’t always possible due to lack of firewood or burning bans.  This oven is said to require minimal sun and will cook a variety of food in two to four hours.  Crockpot cooking is something we love, and even though there are 12 volt crock pots available, it just isn’t a feasible option  for us when trying to limit battery use.

Because we were gone during the winter months and we camped in the desert at high elevations, nights were cold.  We kept the thermostat at a comfortable level but still noticed cold air around our windows.  This was easily remedied by draping a blanket or sweatshirt over the curtain valance to help insulate the camper.  We brought along a sleeping bag for emergencies (good thing- we needed it the one night we ran out of propane!) and made sure we had extra blankets.

Water consumption was a tricky thing for us to gauge in the beginning.  We relied on disposable cups that we’d reuse throughout the day and paper plates quite often to conserve on dish water.  To cut down further on dirty dishes, a variety of meals can be cooked in the oven or over a campfire in aluminum foil packets.

Showers were taken quickly with the hot water heater turned off as soon as we were through.  Wet wipes, soap, and washcloths eliminated the need to shower every day. For people who don't mind showering outdoors, there are convenient Solar Showers available that will heat four gallons of water in roughly three hours.  

There are numerous methods to conserve your resources when camping, and these are just a few examples.  In the three months we were gone, we ran out of fresh water once and propane once. Not bad for a learn-as-you-go experience. We'd love to hear from those of you who have other tips and pointers on conserving resources while camping.