What all will work with solar

[Hclarkx]

Originally Posted by bikendan

Yep, there's a lot of misconceptions about RV solar. It's marketed as a magical thing to solve all your power needs.

I don't know about the marketing, but solar has provided all of my power needs for five years (since I upgraded to 600W). In five years I have not run the generator or plugged into an electrical outlet (I don't even have the means to do so). This is 25 months; five months per year all in spring and fall. Loads include an espresso maker, toaster, microwave, home theater, space heater, etc.

When I added a CPAP machine and a 12V fridge (9.1 cu ft) a year ago I upgraded to 1000W though have engaged the last 400 only a couple of times.

[doanshop]

Solar is nice but you won't be able to run much off it unless you have 300 to 600 watts
100watts is good for lights and water pump .running fridge ,heater will tax it . I installed 300watts and still bought a generator solar doesn't work to good in shade cloudy days so you need to get power from somewhere either shore power or a generator . In another post I said if I had it to do over again I would just buy a Generator I still stand by that statement but that is for Me .With my generator and 200 amp lithium batteries I can stay for 2 weeks only having to move to dump tanks . I can run A/C , heater , fridge , electric oven charge batteries and not have to worry about using to much power . We use electric oven in summer time fyi . Anyway 100 watts will do you good if you don't need heater any cloudy day you will lose ground .

[skipatroller]

As others tell you on this site the solar charges your batteries. Now let's take this a little further and let's explain to you what the 12v system will do.
It will provide power for you lights, your furnace, and you fridge, water pump.

Now the fridge is where this will get tricky, many newer units have 12v DC only, a lot of manufactures did away with the combo 12vdc / propane dual units, why I'm not sure. If you have the 12 vdc only and are boon docking (camping with no hookups at all) you need to pay attention to your battery level, once you go dead and have no way to charge your battery you are up a creek without a paddle, unless you carry a second battery.

While at a campground and plugged into 120 vac the power will automatically charge your battery and you will not notice anything. With this continuous charge you will not need to conserve as much.

[nickens]

Originally Posted by NavyLCDR

It's probably not going to do much more than charge the batteries when there is no real load on the batteries.

My camper came with a 50w panel ~ 3-4A during peak hours, so about 10-20 Ah per day depending on conditions. It won’t even keep up with all the parasitic draws. Might need to add a switch to turn off all draws so the solar can just trickle the battery.

[flyflotrtim]

OP. We are extremely frugal when boondocking, no heat, no fans, careful with the lights. We can get by on 20 AH a day just fine. If your roof is mostly in the sun each day, your 100 watt panel can supple that.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by yukongold

I respectfully disagree with others who state that solar panels "do not run" things in an RV. Anything and everything in an RV can be powered by the batteries - 12VAC from the batteries directly and 120VAC thru an inverter. If boondocking, the panels are feeding the battery bank which, in turn, feed he appliances. So, by extension, the panels ARE running things.

The question becomes how many and how large do you need. If enough panels and enough battery power and a large enough inverter is used, no shore power would ever be needed. That, of course, is dependent on physical restraints - - size of real estate available, weight issues, etc..

When I was boating there were several owners in the marina who set up large systems on their boats and could go indefinitely without ever plugging into shore power or running a generator. (Course, they had pretty big boats.)

To the OP, in your case, the answer is probably the panel will just "run" recharging the battery/batteries. But a large enough system will "run" everything.

What you say is true------ -- but only during daylight hours and clear skies.

Now what about the other 16 (annual avg)hours?

It's best for most to just approach solar from the direction where it just replenishes power used from the battery bank. After a long dark night the solar system is busy charging batteries with not much left over.

[Hclarkx]

Just for fun, here's what the OP can expect from a 100W panel in his home town of Critz, VA. The plot is for a statistically representative year in Critz, VA. The winter months produce around 200 Wh per day on average. Converted to Ah at 12.4V, that's around 16 Ah. That's well more than any credible RV lead-acid battery needs to cover self-discharge, but I wouldn't want to camp there in the winter without a generator.

Like much of that part of the Country, the clouds come often but vary widely from day to day unlike much of the greater Southwest where clouds are infrequent though usually last a couple of days when they do occur.

[DavidWJ]

Originally Posted by Baferg94

Today I was moving my camper to a new spot by my house that I just laid gravel on and was on my ladder blowing it off before hitching up and found out there’s a solar panel mounted on the roof that I didn’t know about. It appears to be hardwired in already. I’m not sure the size of the panel but am wondering if all I need to do is hook up the cables to the battery that are marked “solar” to use it or if there more to be done and what all it will power. I have a 2021 coachmen apex 300bhs and am still new to all of it so any advice and tips are much appreciated.

The solar panel needs to be connected to the DC inputs of a Charge Controller. The Charge Controller then has 12VDC outputs to connect to the batteries.

200 W of solar panels are sufficient to keep two gold cart batteries fully charged if moderately used to power the DC devices in the RV.

A 2000 W Inverter connected to two golf cart batteries will power a microwave for a few minutes a couple times a day. That might be boiling water for coffee or cooking a HungryMan dinner. I use mine for about 2 minutes three or four times a day. The batteries DO need to be charged daily when using the Inverter.

Double all the components to run the A/C. It's probably best to run the A/C off a 3500 W generator than the expense of all that solar.

[SRP09]

Originally Posted by Tabasco_Joe

I just looked at a couple Apex models at the Hershey show. They had charge controllers in the external storage compartment. Right side. Just inside the door mounted on left, top. Ones I saw were the cheap Chinese controllers common on Amazon.

Yes, I have an Apex with a small solar panel and my controller is where you said. OP, be sure to check your unit in that location before purchasing anything.