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My girlfriend and I just finished 3 glorious months of full timing in our RV during quarantine here in Northern California. Our solar worked spectacularly as always. We don't have a generator and never start our engine, just 100% off-grid solar.
I work part time as a campground host and the campground was closed to visitors (a quarantine paradise, ha), but now that it's open again it's a sea of RVs with no solar panels on their roofs, and everyone running their generators on bright sunny days. They probably have battery banks anyway, which is the most expensive part, so it's downright crazy that they don't have solar panels too. It's a real shame.
I think part of the reason is all the misinformation out there about RV solar. People still have their expectations tuned to old style RV solar with sub 300 watt banks, PWM charge controllers and 12-volt panels.
Anyway, our solar system in a nutshell:
- three 300-watt 72-cell panels ("house style panels") in parallel to avoid shading issues (about $120 each). Flat mounted on our roof. I should clean the seagull poop off them more often.
- a Morningstar MPPT-60 charge controller (bought used for $200, new I think $400, but I previously had this cheapie and it worked just as well). If I was buying new I'd look closely at the Victron models for their excellent monitoring apps.
- 4 Trojan T-105 batteries, wired for 12 volt. If I was starting over I'd probably go 24 volt, but these have worked beautifully. They're 5 or maybe 6 years old now and still working great. Just keep an eye on your water levels. Some day these will die and I'll probably replace with lithium.
- Xantrex 1000 watt inverter, but their 600 watt model would be fine too.
We both work full-time in front of computers all day, she with a laptop and an external 23 inch monitor, me with a laptop and often a 21.5" iMac. And we run our RV's propane heater with it's power sucking blower whenever we need, which is most nights here on the Northern California coast, and lights and power tools (frequent grinder and orbital sander) etc. We literally never give a thought to power consumption. I wish I had watt numbers for this write-up but I never hooked up my Trimetric watt meter after getting this RV 5 years ago since I don't have to give much of a thought to power consumption anymore.
Here's the most recent log from our Morningstar charge controller:
panel.jpg So for anyone considering adding solar to their RV's, I couldn't recommend it any higher. It's dirt cheap and, if you get a few house style solar panels, an MPPT charge controller and sufficient battery bank, will be mostly set it and forget it. And if anyone tells you solar doesn't work well on an RV ask them about their system, I bet it will be some combination of panels that aren't permanently mounted, 12 volt panels, PWM charge controller, sub 300 watts of panels, etc. Or maybe they've never even owned an RV.
Solar is literally the best money you can spend on your camper in my opinion. And plus you won't be blasting your neighbors with a generator anymore.
I'm glad to answer any questions about my experiences if anyone is on the fence.
I work part time as a campground host and the campground was closed to visitors (a quarantine paradise, ha), but now that it's open again it's a sea of RVs with no solar panels on their roofs, and everyone running their generators on bright sunny days. They probably have battery banks anyway, which is the most expensive part, so it's downright crazy that they don't have solar panels too. It's a real shame.
I think part of the reason is all the misinformation out there about RV solar. People still have their expectations tuned to old style RV solar with sub 300 watt banks, PWM charge controllers and 12-volt panels.
Anyway, our solar system in a nutshell:
- three 300-watt 72-cell panels ("house style panels") in parallel to avoid shading issues (about $120 each). Flat mounted on our roof. I should clean the seagull poop off them more often.
- a Morningstar MPPT-60 charge controller (bought used for $200, new I think $400, but I previously had this cheapie and it worked just as well). If I was buying new I'd look closely at the Victron models for their excellent monitoring apps.
- 4 Trojan T-105 batteries, wired for 12 volt. If I was starting over I'd probably go 24 volt, but these have worked beautifully. They're 5 or maybe 6 years old now and still working great. Just keep an eye on your water levels. Some day these will die and I'll probably replace with lithium.
- Xantrex 1000 watt inverter, but their 600 watt model would be fine too.
We both work full-time in front of computers all day, she with a laptop and an external 23 inch monitor, me with a laptop and often a 21.5" iMac. And we run our RV's propane heater with it's power sucking blower whenever we need, which is most nights here on the Northern California coast, and lights and power tools (frequent grinder and orbital sander) etc. We literally never give a thought to power consumption. I wish I had watt numbers for this write-up but I never hooked up my Trimetric watt meter after getting this RV 5 years ago since I don't have to give much of a thought to power consumption anymore.
Here's the most recent log from our Morningstar charge controller:
panel.jpg So for anyone considering adding solar to their RV's, I couldn't recommend it any higher. It's dirt cheap and, if you get a few house style solar panels, an MPPT charge controller and sufficient battery bank, will be mostly set it and forget it. And if anyone tells you solar doesn't work well on an RV ask them about their system, I bet it will be some combination of panels that aren't permanently mounted, 12 volt panels, PWM charge controller, sub 300 watts of panels, etc. Or maybe they've never even owned an RV.
Solar is literally the best money you can spend on your camper in my opinion. And plus you won't be blasting your neighbors with a generator anymore.
I'm glad to answer any questions about my experiences if anyone is on the fence.
But mine is so small and simple that it isn't much of a comparison. I'm actually <300 watts on the roof with 12V panels and using a PWM controller as well! But the thing is, it is well matched for how we use the camper and I knew that when I built it. I built with expansion in mind with wiring and controller capacity (I thought I'd eventually double everything) but actually never have. We're fortunate to spend most all of our camping time in our homestate of Montana where air conditioning is not a requirement, but I do haul along a generator strictly for AC duty these days.
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