Solar prep

[waynebas33]

Hey everyone,
In one week we trade our 2014 heritage glen lite rear entertainment room for a rear bunk house to accommodate the growing family! The new camper, 2018 Salem hemisphere has a few things i am not familiar with.
1.solar prep. It says 10amps on the cover. So my question is how can i best utilize that? What will it run? Etc.
2. The camper has a full size residential fridge. So is it only electric? Or does it run on propane as well, so it stays cold while traveling. These are my questions now, i am sure i will have more once i have it in my care. Thank you for your responses!

[formerFR]

1. 10amps of solar is about 2 - 100w panels, maximum... and solar 'powers' nothing, it just recharges your batteries for your 12v items to use, and your Inverter for your 120v items...(like your Fridge, below). Solar is a supplementary power source, meaning that it is not for 'direct' powering of anything, but provides the ability to have a clean, quiet recharging of your batteries, as long as there is sun, and mostly, DIRECT sunshine on the panels. A 200w panel system will cost about $300 to $400 dollars, but you can easily start out with a 100w 'suitcase' system that is designed to be portable and easy to store, and easy to deploy and tilt toward the sun, move when needed, etc.

2. the Fridge is ONLY 120v... meaning, just like at home, it plugs into a regular outlet, and yes, must be powered by the Inverter all the time. The Inverter is simply a device that takes 12v battery power and changes it to 120v for items like the fridge, microwave, computers and devices, etc. Your fridge can stay on 24/7, even while traveling, as long as you have battery power for the Inverter to use.

Your Generator, when off-grid, is going to be your PRIMARY power source, nothing else is going to give you 'anytime, anywhere' power, unless, of course, you are plugged into 120v Shore Power : )

enjoy !

[waynebas33]

Great info. Thank you for taking the time to answer all that!