Solar Power For RV's For Beginners

Wednesday, January 28, 2009 ·

By Tim Fearey

More and more people are packing up and getting away from it all with a travel trailer or rv. The new practice of 'boondocking' in complete wilderness is a great way to escape the hustle and bustle of modern life. Even so, a camper still needs electricity. If you are parked in one place for a long time, the batteries start to run low. Most campers start a gasoline powered generator and let it run for a couple hours to charge the system back up. This is a fast way to solve the electrical problem, but it is noisy and it isn't very environmentally friendly.

When you go out into the wilderness to get away from it all, the last thing you want to hear is a noisy engine running in the background. A much quieter solution to the problem is rv solar panels, which can silently charge up your batteries using the free and clean energy of the sun.

The solar panels in a camper solar setup come in different sizes, like two feet by three feet or two feet by four feet. They will have a rating, such as 80 or 120 watts, which you can use to calculate how many panels you will need. These arrays of photo-voltaic cells can be wired together in series to match whatever charging requirements you have.

Many rv solar panels are permanently mounted on the roof, or are placed beside the camper. While the roof mounted panels are more secure in winds and don't need packing and unpacking, the panels on portable stands can be oriented to face the sun as it moves during the day.

The sunlight gets converted to DC current, which flows down the wires to the charge controller. If the batteries are full, the charge controller won't let any more power pass through and saves the batteries from being ruined by overcharging them. AS soon as the battery level drops, the controller allows current to flow through.

The batteries need to be deep cycle rv batteries, which typically are what most motorhomes, campers and trailer already have. You may need to add more batteries for extra storage capacity, depending on how much electricity you will be using.

The final part of the system is the inverter. Inverters can convert Direct Current electrical current to Alternating Current 110V. This will allow you to use household appliances in your holiday trailer. Inverters come in different sizes, and some are more efficient than others, so it pays to shop around.

All of these components can be purchased from and installed by your Recreational Vehicle dealer. Alternatively, you can install them yourself with a little research. If In any case, a visit to your RV dealership will let you know what is available. Also, they can give you a pretty good idea of what size your system needs to be and how many solar panels it will require.

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