How Much Solar Panel Do I Need For My Rv
If you have a smaller budget then this may be the overall limiting factor of your rv solar system.
How much solar panel do i need for my rv. It doesn t matter how many panels you have if you don t have the battery bank to store the energy your panels are pulling in. These recommendations are based on the metric that you can produce 30 ah of battery charge using a 100 watt solar panel between 5 9 hours of sun exposure. You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner. How much solar do i need on my rv.
Reality is you only need as many panels as your batteries are able to store and your usage warrants. 190 watt solar panel kit with mppt 40 amp ranges from 950 to 1050. This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels. Most solar panels feature one hundred watts of power and are capable of producing about six amps for each peak sun hour.
For our experiment 5 hours of direct sunlight without clouds x 6 amps generated per hour 30 amp hours per day that the solar panels are generating to recharge our rv batteries. Assuming we get 5 hours of direct sunlight we know a 100 watt solar panel will produce 30 amp hours per day. Having four big solar panels attached to the roof of our trailer attracts a bit of attention when we pull into most campgrounds. Roof mounted panels are inefficient roof mounted panels won t deliver their advertised wattage.
The best solar panels for rv are likely to have up to 5 tolerance. Home while we roam september 25 2019. I don t know too many people who rv under those conditions. Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks.
This equals thirty amp hours a day meaning you would need two one hundred watt panels to fully recharge your rv. That panel is rated at 100 watts at peak efficiency meaning on a 78 degree cloudless day at solar noon on the equator during the equinox. Solar panels are sold in varying sizes but a 100 watt panel is a commonly found size particularly for rvs. A big misconception with rv solar is that you need 500 600 or 900 watts of solar for it to be worth it.
It is not uncommon for a new neighbor to walk over and ask about our. Solar living is easy in monument valley utah. We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours. The lower the tolerance percentage the better will be the performance.
The typical solar panel found on most rvs range from 100 watts to 160 watts. Sample rv solar kit cost as of january 2020.