Another solar thread, I need help.

[RVRay]

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

I think (and maybe that's where my problem lies, LOL) but I think you have to clarify something before others can help you. There are two concepts when the RV manufacturers say the RV is "solar ready." Originally that meant a two pin connection at the front of the TT or 5er. The wires from it ran straight to the battery. And it is often called a glorified trickle charger. That's not quite fair because it can handle up to 10 amps which is roughly two 100 watt solar panels.

The other concept is rooftop port pre-wired to allow you to install solar panels on the roof and a solar charge controller somewhere inside the RV, and from the SCC the wires run to the battery. That second set of wires is supplied by either the OEM or the owner. That rooftop port "usually" can handle up to 30 amps.

All of the above addresses only Solar Power recharging your batteries. Running all the 120vac items you mentioned must be powered by an inverter if you are not plugged into shore power, or a generator.

Yet another concept, which I don't know if you have, is the OEM pre-wiring for an Inverter. An Inverter is connected to your batteries and creates 120vac from your battery 12vdc. IF the RV was pre-wired for an inverter, then certain outlets, but usually not all, will/can be powered by the inverter. Those outlets should have a little sticker by them. My RV has 3 outlets. Driver side bed outlet, one outlet in the kitchen, and the outlet behind the TV. And they forgot to put the stickers on mine.

I think if you clarify what you have and what you want to accomplish, others can provide more guidance.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

Your expectations of solar are too high. Especially for a popup.
To do all things you want to do, you'll need a bank of LiPo batteries and a big whole house inverter.
Solar doesn't power the outlets. Solar recharges the batteries which will power the outlets through the whole house inverter.
IMHO, you need to do way more research into what solar systems can and can't do.
Solar isn't magical.

[rsdata]

start by doing some youtube video watching searching for solar and RV

110-120VAC, solar and camping are difficult...

12 VDC, solar and camping are much easier to accomplish... too many inefficiencies changing solar to 120 VAC to happen... it is possible, but not cheap and not in your popup

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Mikec557

IF the RV was pre-wired for an inverter, then certain outlets, but usually not all, will/can be powered by the inverter. Those outlets should have a little sticker by them. My RV has 3 outlets. Driver side bed outlet, one outlet in the kitchen, and the outlet behind the TV. And they forgot to put the stickers on mine.

Popups don't have INverters nor wiring for them.

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Popups don't have INverters nor wiring for them.

My apologies. I missed that he said he had a popup.

[njfishing]

Yep you'd need at least 250 watts of solar to charge multiple batteries to keep them charged enough to be able to run all the stuff you mentioned. Probably not practical

The ZAMP connection you have is simply a set of wires between the battery and the Zamp plug. You still need a solar charger between the panels and that ZAMP plug to regulate the charge to the batteries.

Your electric outlets are wired and intended to be used when your Pop up is Plugged into power. If you wanted them to run off the battery they would need to be wired to a battery inverter, which I doubt you have.... The inverter takes the DC power from your batteries and converts it into AC power to power the outlets...

Most serious off the grid people who want to have enough power to run a lot of stuff in their RVs have some very elaborate set ups consisting of several Lithium Ion batteries which cost over $500 each and several solar panels, battery monitoring systems etc. That's a tall order for a pop up. Many will also bring a generator along just in case there's not enough sun to recharge the batteries.

Me, I camp off the grid a few times a year and rather then make the investment in solar, I watch my power usage and run the generator a few hours in the morning and evening to top off my two 6 volt golf cart batteries. Even then I've come up short and the furnace died once in the middle of a cold night since the furnace fan depleted the batteries.

[Flybob]

If the set up is the normal Zamp, it is a connector and some wiring to the battery area. Most Zamp setups have a small solar controller as part of the panel. Adding solar to a PUP you can expect to be able to replace some capacity to the battery and maybe recharge a phone or two. You will not be able to run the fridge, or and heating appliance. For a reference, for every 1 amp used by a 120VAC appliance you will need 10A 12VDC from the 12V system/battery. A 100W panel will give you about 5A at 12VDC in full sun ( lass in shade or early/late in the day). Most respectable solar suppliers offer a learning section on their web sites to help with understanding solar. Here (Link) is an example of one from Renogy.

[llamb]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

If you're wishing to learn what it really takes to do this, I'd suggest reviewing the following

EXPLORIST.life - RV Camper Solar/RV series

Nate does a very good job of breaking it all out.

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

If you want to boondock and run off of solar on a popup without much room for panels, you'll need to look at decreasing your AC power demands IMO.

Firstly, since you have a three way fridge, you'd be MUCH better served to use propane when boondocking, as either 12 volt DC or 120 volt AC is a huge power draw.

What we did for our camper was to move away from AC as much as we can. I installed several 12 volt outlets throughout the camper, several USB outlets as well, our TV is a 12 volt model, we use a small pure sine wave 300 watt inverter that plugs into our 12 volt outlets for charging laptops, we listen to music through a bluetooth system that runs off of our phones (much less power intensive than running a laptop), and our fridge is a DC only model. The fridge is by far the biggest power draw. You're already ahead by a longshot by having a fridge that can run off of propane.

I have a solar setup that charges the batteries, and everything else is powered by the battery bank. I don't have an integrated inverter, but it's hard for me to justify the cost and work to install when the only thing I really ever run on AC is the microwave, which I just fire up the generator for.

[boogiejack75]

Originally Posted by llamb

If you're wishing to learn what it really takes to do this, I'd suggest reviewing the following

EXPLORIST.life - RV Camper Solar/RV series

Nate does a very good job of breaking it all out.

X2. Was just about to type the same thing.

[PhilFromMaine]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Hello everyone. New to the forum and somewhat new to RV's. We have a 2018 Rockwood Freedom 1910 ESP Popup we bought used that has the Zamp Solar Ready kit. From what I've been reading that means it's a glorified solar battery charger. But if I'm mistaken and there is more to it please correct me on that.

I want to run the electric outlets off solar when boondocking. The outlets are to be used with the heated mattresses, and charge our laptop. We'll want to have some lights and radio (through my laptop for music), possibly a fan. I also want to run the refridge on 120v. Is this possible? When I'm powered off the battery the outlets don't get power and the refridge is either 12/120/propane. So I'm curious how this will work and what I need to buy to make it happen if it is possible.

I realize a similar question may have been asked before in another thread so if that's the case feel free to post a link to that. Thanks in advance for any help with this.

As others have said, your expectations are high. Expect to spend thousands of dollars to equip your PUP for that level of electrical service.
IMO, the EXplorists site is excellent, but I think you should start with a simpler introduction then move on to a site like the Explorist.

Solar power can be reduced to a mathematical model. Watts=Amps x Volts. The video below very nicely explains what you can expect to get power wise from a 100 watt solar panel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nrAE5Q3lVQ

[RVRay]

Thanks to everyone who has responded! I can def cut back. Though getting the outlets to power the heated mattresses is pretty much the priority.

With that said, is there a cost effective way to power the 120 outlets with solar? I have room for a second battery. I don't think there is an inverter installed (not sure where it would be to find it). I just don't understand the connection process from the battery to the 120 to make that happen. Maybe I should have started with those questions. I'm pretty green when it comes to understanding electricity so your patients is greatly appreciated.

I do have a small solar battery charger I got at AutoZone that charges the battery fine for some lights and the water pump, and the propane works great on the refridge. We'd really like to get a couple 120 outlets working though if possible.

The links to resources are going to be valuable so I'll dig into those.

Thanks again,
Ray

[rsdata]

I'm sure you have a 12 VDC cigar outlet... most trailers do... plug in a cheap inverter and try out the mattress(es) on low and see how long the battery lasts... you can do this in the driveway

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Though getting the outlets to power the heated mattresses is pretty much the priority.

With that said, is there a cost effective way to power the 120 outlets with solar? I have room for a second battery. I don't think there is an inverter installed (not sure where it would be to find it). I just don't understand the connection process from the battery to the 120 to make that happen. I'm pretty green when it comes to understanding electricity so your We'd really like to get a couple 120 outlets working though if possible.

Again, you need to learn more about how solar works.
Solar will not directly power the 120v outlets. The batteries will IF you have a big inverter.
And your popup did not come with an inverter.
With room for only two batteries, if you want to power the outlets, you'll need LiPo batteries with a big inverter.
And powering the heated mattresses will eat up that battery power fast.

[rsdata]

Converting 12 VDC power to 110 VAC is inefficient ( conversion of DC to AC costs power)... stay on the 12 VDC side of life...

read about these 12 VDC heating pads...

keep in mind to keep your wattage at the lowest end you can... you can draw down a fully charged camper battery pretty quick at the higher settings

https://buyitforvanlife.com/5-safe-1...-options-road/

[Mikec557]

Originally Posted by RVRay

... Though getting the outlets to power the heated mattresses is pretty much the priority.

Ray, I think I can give you some info. We use a king size electric mattress pad in our RV. It has two separate controls. I usually sleep with mine on 3 and my wife sleeps with hers on Lo. With that in mind I plugged ours into a Kill-a-watt meter to see how much electricity it uses.

In short, my side on 3 for 8hrs would need 20 Amp hours of 12v. My wife's side on low 5.7 amps of 12v. So overnight your battery would be depleted by 26 amps of 12v. Plus whatever your parasitic draws you have. See the math below.

Note, my 10% inverter overhead represents the rating on my inverter of 90% efficient. It's not perfect math but it'll get you close.

Electric Mattress Pad
.19kwh for 7 hrs at setting 3
190watts @ 120vac = 1.58 ah
190w / 12vdc = 15.8 ah, + 10% inverter overhead = 17.4 ah.
17.4ah/7hr=~2.5ah per hour.
2.5a per hour @ 12vdc
20ah for 8hr sleep.

.07kwh for 9 hrs at Lo
70watts @ 120vac = .58 ah
70w / 12vdc = 5.8 ah, + 10% inverter overhead = 6.4ah
6.4ah/9hr=. 71ah per hour
. 71*8hr=5.7ah for 8hr sleep

One more thing. Using our mattress pad as a guide I think we'd need at 300 watt inverter. At the time I was using a 400 watt inverter. But you get the idea. You might consider buying a Kill-a-watt meter. Then you can measure the items you'd like to use.

[GravelRider]

Originally Posted by RVRay

Thanks to everyone who has responded! I can def cut back. Though getting the outlets to power the heated mattresses is pretty much the priority.

With that said, is there a cost effective way to power the 120 outlets with solar? I have room for a second battery. I don't think there is an inverter installed (not sure where it would be to find it). I just don't understand the connection process from the battery to the 120 to make that happen. Maybe I should have started with those questions. I'm pretty green when it comes to understanding electricity so your patients is greatly appreciated.

I do have a small solar battery charger I got at AutoZone that charges the battery fine for some lights and the water pump, and the propane works great on the refridge. We'd really like to get a couple 120 outlets working though if possible.

The links to resources are going to be valuable so I'll dig into those.

Thanks again,
Ray

Solar basically only does one thing, which is to charge the battery bank. Solar doesn't directly power anything. So, the bottom line is that your battery bank will need to be large enough to handle your loads. You'll need to figure out how much power your electric blankets (and everything else) use overnight. You'll need to have a battery bank that can handle this.

Once you have your battery bank figured out, you'll need an appropriate amount of solar to charge the battery bank during the day.

Once you have that figured out, then you'll need to convert 12 volt battery power to 120 volt AC power. This is done through an inverter. An inverter converts DC power (the battery) to AC power (120 volt receptacles). You don't actually need solar to run an inverter. You just need a large enough battery bank to run the AC for your draws, and a way to then charge up the battery bank (whether through solar, generator, or shore power).

[mnoland30]

A heated mattress uses around 10 amps. If you leave it on for 8 hours, that is 80 amp-hours. That is 80% of the capacity of a 200 ah battery bank (assuming lead acid batteries). To recharge that during a long sunny day in the southwest, you'll need at least 200 watts of solar, and probably more. You can improve your batteries by using two golf cart 6volt batteries ($200 at Costco) wired in series. They are true deep cycle batteries designed for this. You don't want to discharge them more than 50%, because that shortens their life, so a 200 amp-hour battery bank only give you 100 ah of use. My philosophy is that we are camping, so we sleep in sleeping bags. My ROO came with a heated mattress, and my dog's mattress is more comfortable. I threw it out and got a foam mattress. We do watch TV using a 12 volt TV. You can buy one with a built in DVD player. When you use an inverter to change 12v DC to 120v AC, you lose at least 10%. You lose even more if you inverter is rated higher than what you're powering. We don't use the AC outlets for anything. We are camping. If you really want to power everything (except Air Conditioner) buy a 1000w Honda generator, and a 100' extension cord with 10 gauge wire, and an extended run gas tank, and put it facing away from the camper. If you're boondocking, you can run that all night and will barely hear it. If you're camping with others, you probably can't run the generator at night. The biggest power use we have is the heater fan. We run it in the evening and in the morning, but turn it off when we're sleeping. I have 200 watts of solar, and don't bother taking the generator anymore. The only time I need a generator is when I need Air Conditioning. Both times we stayed at a site with power.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by mnoland30

A heated mattress uses around 10 amps. If you leave it on for 8 hours, that is 80 amp-hours. That is 80% of the capacity of a 200 ah battery bank (assuming lead acid batteries). To recharge that during a long sunny day in the southwest, you'll need at least 200 watts of solar, and probably more. You can improve your batteries by using two golf cart 6volt batteries ($200 at Costco) wired in series. They are true deep cycle batteries designed for this. You don't want to discharge them more than 50%, because that shortens their life, so a 200 amp-hour battery bank only give you 100 ah of use. My philosophy is that we are camping, so we sleep in sleeping bags. My ROO came with a heated mattress, and my dog's mattress is more comfortable. I threw it out and got a foam mattress. We do watch TV using a 12 volt TV. You can buy one with a built in DVD player. When you use an inverter to change 12v DC to 120v AC, you lose at least 10%. You lose even more if you inverter is rated higher than what you're powering. We don't use the AC outlets for anything. We are camping. If you really want to power everything (except Air Conditioner) buy a 1000w Honda generator, and a 100' extension cord with 10 gauge wire, and an extended run gas tank, and put it facing away from the camper. If you're boondocking, you can run that all night and will barely hear it. If you're camping with others, you probably can't run the generator at night. The biggest power use we have is the heater fan. We run it in the evening and in the morning, but turn it off when we're sleeping. I have 200 watts of solar, and don't bother taking the generator anymore. The only time I need a generator is when I need Air Conditioning. Both times we stayed at a site with power.

A heated pad only draws that power when set to max heat. In reality most probably set it far lower. Mine was rarely set above 2, even on freezing nights and furnace set at 60 degrees.

As for using the heated pad, I've switched to just using a double wide sleeping bag which is comfy and requires no power at all.