full time solar, maybe?
i have been thinking to go solar with my 29' Cougar 5th wheel. ok, maybe day dreaming would be a better term. i figure that i if i can make things run on a 2900W generator, why can't it work on a 29...
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It can be done. It might be a fun project. Your RV is probably already 102" wide which is the maximum allowed. If you go hanging solar panels down each side it's bound to add a few inches to each side of the RV making it technically to wide to go down the highway without an over width permit.
I'm not sure how you arrived at 2000 watt with 12 panels. That's 166.66 watts per panel which is a very odd size. Modern 60 cell panels are now up to 365 watts each. You can even get 72 cell panels up to about 450 watts each. If you want to build a large system I'd at least use large panels.
If you RV is 29' long and 8.5' wide that gives you about 246 square feet. A 365 watt panel is about 18 square feet. Subtracting some for other roof equipment you could probably get at least 8 on the roof alone. That's 2,920 watts.
On a 12v system you might be able to put over 200 amps of charge into a battery bank. You would realistically want at lest a 2,000 amp/hour bank in order to accept that kind of charge and you would need at minimum 2 100A Magnum PT-100 charge controllers. I don't know of another charge controller that will handle 100 amps on a 12 volt system. Most are only about 60 amps so you would need 4 of those which adds complication.
By the way, a solar array is usually around 4 watts a square foot so those 8 panels will probably add about 580 pounds to your roof. A 2,000 AH lead acid battery bank could be make with 12 Concord PVX-9150T batteries. That would be about 1,128 pounds of batteries.
So, it is a big undertaking. I've built plenty of these, most of them larger, but mine are stationary on off grid cabins.
I'm not sure how you arrived at 2000 watt with 12 panels. That's 166.66 watts per panel which is a very odd size. Modern 60 cell panels are now up to 365 watts each. You can even get 72 cell panels up to about 450 watts each. If you want to build a large system I'd at least use large panels.
If you RV is 29' long and 8.5' wide that gives you about 246 square feet. A 365 watt panel is about 18 square feet. Subtracting some for other roof equipment you could probably get at least 8 on the roof alone. That's 2,920 watts.
On a 12v system you might be able to put over 200 amps of charge into a battery bank. You would realistically want at lest a 2,000 amp/hour bank in order to accept that kind of charge and you would need at minimum 2 100A Magnum PT-100 charge controllers. I don't know of another charge controller that will handle 100 amps on a 12 volt system. Most are only about 60 amps so you would need 4 of those which adds complication.
By the way, a solar array is usually around 4 watts a square foot so those 8 panels will probably add about 580 pounds to your roof. A 2,000 AH lead acid battery bank could be make with 12 Concord PVX-9150T batteries. That would be about 1,128 pounds of batteries.
So, it is a big undertaking. I've built plenty of these, most of them larger, but mine are stationary on off grid cabins.
