Running A Full Sized Solar Panel On An Rv

Best expandable solar rv kit.

Running a full sized solar panel on an rv.

Remember back when we decided to rip out our rv refrigerator because it kicked the bucket and lived out of a cooler for a year. Rv solar panels work by converting sunlight into electricity or power. The produced electric current is then fed into a charge controller. As you can see operating a large refrigerator on just solar can become very expensive.

How do rv solar panels work. Lastly i connected my four renogy 100 watt panels in parallel running 10 awg wires from the panels to a rooftop mounted combiner box. I don t know too many people who rv under those conditions. Since the panels in our systems are always connected in parallel you can assume about 6 amps per 100 watts of solar panels.

It s called a controller because it modifies how much energy reaches the battery so as not to overcharge them. If you pair a pwm controller with solar panels that have a higher voltage than your battery the controller won t be able to use all of the current and will waste some of the generated electricity. Currently as we speak our self installed rv solar panels are completely running our new refrigerator. Basically the rv solar panels route to a solar charge controller which sends the energy your panels have created to the on board battery system.

Solar panel mc4 connectors connecting panels to combiner box. 24 hours a day we have refrigerated food and it is damn glorious. For example to charge a 12v rv house battery you should pair it with a single 12v solar panel or multiple 12v panels wired in parallel. This is the one that will control the amount of current that gets into the battery.

The renogy solar panels came with short wires with mc4 connectors attached from the factory. Well folks those days are long behind us. Solar panels are sold in varying sizes but a 100 watt panel is a commonly found size particularly for rvs. Besides the 8 batteries and 10 panels a couple adequate sized charge controllers and a smart battery charger would also be required for this example.

If running a solar system to power electrical items in your rv is new to you and you want to try it on a small scale this 12 volt kit is ideal. 7824 watt hrs day 160watts panel x 5 hours sunlight per day 9 78 10 panels. If you are looking at this for an rv check out the rv solar panel guide as well use a solar calculator for a realistic estimate a solar power calculator will require some work on your end in terms of inputting what you want solar power for and looking at the wattage of your devices and appliances. The panels create an electric current each time the sun hits them.