What Components Do You Need For Your RV Solar System？

 

Solar panels atop RVs are all the rage. Everybody’s installing them. But what are RV solar panels? How do they work, what can they do for you, and are they worth the investment? Let’s find out!

 

What Are RV Solar Panels?

 

In the 1800s, scientists observed something called the photovoltaic effect, where some materials would produce an electric charge and current when exposed to sunlight. Attempts were made over the years to create “solar engines,” as they called them, but most had very low efficiencies. It wasn’t until the 1950’s that scientists discovered that silicon (found in sand) could create a much more efficient solar panel.

This initial discovery led to the development of solar cells that could harness the sun’s energy and turn it into electricity. The technology has evolved over the years, but the concept remains the same.

A solar panel is a panel filled with solar cells that capture the sun’s energy and turn that energy into usable electricity that powers homes, businesses, coffee pots, and, yes – your RV!Let’s find out how it all works!

 

 

How Do RV Solar Panels Work?

 

Let’s imagine you have a couple of solar panels on the roof of your RV. If your RV is on the road or parked during the day, sunlight hits your solar panels, and cells on the panels absorb energy from the sun.

Within your solar panels’ cells, circuits take the energy absorbed by the sun’s cells and turn it into electrical current. The electrical current is fed through wires to a charge controller that controls the battery’s current.

So the system looks like this:

 

 

This energy becomes DC (direct current) electricity that charges your RV’s house battery or batteries, essentially “storing” energy to be used to power devices and appliances in your RV or charge devices for your later use. This DC power from the solar panels and batteries is typically 12 volts. This DC power runs lights, appliances, and electronics in the RV.

However, you can also take that 12-Volt DC, pass it through an inverter, and convert it to 120-Volt AC (alternating current) electricity (like the outlets found in a sticks-and-bricks house) to power 120-Volt devices such as a coffee pot.

There are 120-Volt outlets scattered throughout your RV, but those don’t have power unless you’re using a generator or your RV is plugged into shore power.

If you want to run a 120-Volt appliance when you’re boondocking in the desert, you can harness the sun’s energy through solar panels —> charge controller —> batteries —> inverter, and voila! = 120-Volt electricity at your command!

 

 

How To Know How Many Solar Panels You Need For Your RV

 

Knowing how much solar power you need for your camping comfort involves figuring out a couple of pieces of information. These two parts of the equation help you determine how many solar panels you’ll need for the sun’s power to deliver the electricity you want. The two parts of this equation are:

1. How many watt-hours will you use each day? (energy used)
2. How much energy do your solar panels provide to your battery/batteries? (energy stored)

You must balance all of this for an optimal system. Solar panels without enough batteries to store all of the power they produce will waste your money and not provide the power you need.Conversely, one solar panel and lots of batteries will not allow enough of the sun’s energy to be harnessed to fill those batteries for your use!

 

Calculating How Much Energy You Use

 

First, you need to know how much energy you use in a day. There are a couple of ways you can do this. The first involves math. Estimate how much power you’ll consume while boon docking in your RV by learning what each device or appliance you want to use consumes and multiplying that by the number of hours you’ll use that device or appliance.

Here’s an example: You have one television that consumes 90 Watts. You estimate that you’ll watch television for approximately two hours per day. So 90W x 2h = 180 Watt/Hours per day

Keep in mind that your solar panels will only give you the stated number of Watts under perfect conditions. Perfect conditions = direct sun pointing directly at the panel. On a rainy day, you won’t get 100 Watts from your 100-Watt solar panel. If you’re parking in the shade, you won’t get 200 Watts from your 200-Watt solar panel.

It’s also challenging to estimate the amount of power you’ll use on a given day because days are different. You may be outside all day today enjoying nature, and fall into bed and watch 15 minutes of television tonight. Tomorrow could be a rainy day, and you’ll stay inside your RV, do a lot of work on your laptop, and watch a couple of hours of television in the evening. So estimating high is usually a good idea!

Rather than estimating your daily power consumption using math, some people prefer to simply go out camping without electrical hookups and monitor their battery usage over a typical day.

 

 

RV Solar System Components

 

Before we take a look at how you install a solar system, let’s review the RV solar system components:

 

Battery Bank

 

Your battery bank is the heart of an RV’s power system. Without a battery, an RV has no way to store power. The battery is where energy provided by the sun is stored for your use. Your solar panels will charge the battery bank.

But not all battery banks are created equal, and not all are suited to the unpredictable charge cycles of solar systems. Lithium batteries for solar applications are the superior choice over lead-acid.

 

RV Solar Panels

 

Your RV solar panels will sit on the roof of your RV collecting energy from the sun in the solar cells and transferring that energy (through a charge controller) to your battery bank. Your solar panels may lay flat, or you may choose to employ a mounting method that allows you to angle the solar panels toward the sun.

 

Charge Controller

 

The charge controller mounts inside the RV. Wires run from your solar panels to the charge controller and from the charge controller into your battery bank. The purpose of the charge controller is to control the rate at which your batteries charge. The charge controller is required to prevent overcharging and in the case of an MPPT charge controller, operate the panels as efficiently as possible.   

 

 

Inverter

The electricity from your batteries is 12-Volt DC electricity. With this, you can power all 12-Volt devices and appliances as well as the 12-Volt (cigarette lighter) ports in your RV. If you want to use 120-Volt AC electricity to power a coffee maker, laptop, Instapot, or anything that requires AC, you’ll need an inverter that transforms 12V DC power to 120V AC power.

You’ll mount your inverter inside your RV as close to your battery bank as possible, and your AC appliances and devices will receive the transformed (from DC to AC) power from that inverter.