Here's a link to our site where we just added solar to our camper. It covers everything from what we bought, how we decided what to buy, how we installed it and what it all cost.
Lots of good info ! My condition is I just need a little bit of "free Maintenance charging. I'm setting up for a hunting camper. We hunt all day, use a little bit of light and water pump about an hour each night, go to bed,get up before daylight, and hunt all day again. Maybe, just maybe, i'll try and run the gas furnace DC blower at min during the night. I'll not run any AC apliances, and if I do, I allready have a 3500 w generator. It can also do battery charging duty, i'd just rather not run it any more than I have to. Its a lowes contractors grade noisy old thing that wakes the dead.Keep in mind i'm in the middle of nowhere, and the noise won't bother anyone but me and the wildlife. It just breaks the peace and harmony of the boondocks. I thought the 15 wattwith controller may meet my needs, or at least get me by a couple of days, then if neccessary I can fire up the dead dinosaur drinker.
I'd love to put in the systems you guys talk about in my camper, as well as my house, but its not going to happen just yet. For this trip I was going to just set the panel up near the camper and hook to the battery, not even mounting it yet.
randy grider wrote: Heading out monday morning for a week of backcountry dry camping in my 25 ft TT. Just bought 2 brand new RV batteries, and are charging now (through camper inverter). Would a direct hookup to a battery charger do better? I plan to just run water pump as needed, a light or 2 maybe 1 hour a night, and considering running the gas furnace. What kind of drain will this be on my 2 batteries? What watt solar panel do I need to recharge them during the day? 5 Watt? 15 Watt?
Thanks in advance
Before I put in my solar system, I used a 10 watt solar to trickle charge the battery's, At that time I had 6 6v u2200 Interstate Golf Cart Battery's. When I put this in I added a controller. I would say it will give you 2 days maybe 3 if you are conservative.
Remember "Without Truckers America Stops" It's too late to save your shoes..so roll up your pant legs "When all else fails..Amateur Radio" I need some more Coffee&Old Bushmills Semper Fi
5w 15w??? Start thinking 100, 200, 300 watts. Panels are as low as $2 a watt, maybe lower.
My 15w solar barely keeps a float charge on my fully charged batteries down here in sunny so cal. Controller has never gone to float and is always full power barely keeping 13.4 volts on the battery.
Please provide one or more links showing where one can purchase a, say, 120W panel for around $250.
Also, if you can, provide a link or two where I can instead purchase a foldable or roll-up 80-100 watt panel for under $300.
Foldable or roll-up is what I would really prefer, so I can store it in a compartment and place it out in the sun while our MH is in the shade .... but I will also consider a solid 120W panel for $250.
Remember, panels are warranted by the manufacturer, NOT the seller. If your panels are manufactured in China, good luck getting warranty work done. This is why I went with Kyocera panels, they have facilities here in the US.
in 5 days of camping I took 2 showers, ran the truck, while plugged to the camper during the showers, and started my generator for 1 hour one time, more to recharge my cell phone than the camper batteries.I did run the furnace 2 nights, but set it at 55 degrees, and cranked it up to 70 for 15 minutes in the morning while getting ready to hunt. We got in at dark, and went to bed within an hour, and only used one light.Its all about conservative use, and 2 good batteries I think. Batteries never got below 2/3 charge. I am very conservative though. Take the wife and a kid or 2 and i'd probabbly have to run it every day. I think for my use a 15 wattpanel would keep me going, or I could always fall back on the truck, or generator.
Thanks again for the input, you guys are a wealth of info.
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