How Many Solar Panels Do I Need For My Rv

How solar in your rv works.

How many solar panels do i need for my rv.

Since we recommend polycrystalline let s start there. Most boondockers have between 200 to 400 amp hour battery banks. This is assuming you are considering using 12 volt rv grade panels. When you evaluate solar panels for your project you will need to make a choice between monocrystalline and polycrystalline.

You will need at least 1 800 watts of solar panels to run your rv air conditioner. Reality is you only need as many panels as your batteries are able to store and your usage warrants. 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. We suggest a battery bank of 800 amp hours.

A big misconception with rv solar is that you need 500 600 or 900 watts of solar for it to be worth it. For our specific power demands we need one 100 watt portable solar panel to recharge our rv batteries during our boondocking camping trips under normal conditions. This equals thirty amp hours a day meaning you would need two one hundred watt panels to fully recharge your rv. Most solar panels feature one hundred watts of power and are capable of producing about six amps for each peak sun hour.

Polycrystalline solar panels are in the neighborhood of 10 percent less efficient than their monocrystalline counterparts. The more ah you have the more solar panels you ll need if you have a single 12 volt battery at about 100 ah you should have 300 watts of solar panels minimum. With two 12 volt batteries or two 6 volt batteries with between 200 250 ah you should have 600 watts of solar panels minimum. This is also assuming of course you have a lot of battery power too.

For example this is not how it works. How many solar panels do i need to run my air conditioner implies a basic misunderstanding of how solar energy in your rv works. The general rule of thumb is that a 100 watt solar panel can produce about 30 amp hours per day so you can use this guideline to determine about how many panels you need. Tips for estimating rv solar panel needs although actual output may vary based on the factors mentioned above you can get yourself to a ballpark figure using a couple of tips.