Solar Panels (why are people going small?)
I read thru the forums, and it looks like every one is buying 4 100 watt panels............ Why not just get 300 watt panels? I have a 40 foot RV............. Is it possibly to go COmpletely off grid...
Forum Discussion
off the grid solar ac
back of the napkin calculations for this setup is about $13k. That's to run one AC at 900ah. Day and night you likely want about 2000ah.
Begs the question, why? You have an on board generator you can run off gas you already have. For free. Solar is NOT a cheap solution to getting off the grid, or more pointedly to the OP's question of running AC off the grid.
Technically you already have all the equipment you need to be off the grid and run everything in your coach - infinitely as long as you have fuel. Converting it all to solar however is pretty pricey, that won't really save you much other than about 1/2 gal of fuel per hour.
You could also argue that it's greener, but is it? The waste and ecological impact of manufacturing solar panels and batteries can be worse than the fuel you would burn and it's exhaust running your gen.
There are reasons why they don't make totally solar Rv's. it's not cost effective and I'm not sold that it's more green either. Just because the power comes from the sun does not mean that all the products and manufacturing methods of the equipment used to capture that power are green. Fabricating the panels requires caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid, and the process uses water as well as electricity, the production of which emits greenhouse gases. It also creates waste. So while Solar is green, the production of solar products really isn't. Kind of ironic that you need to use the same method to manufacture solar that you are trying to avoid.
back of the napkin calculations for this setup is about $13k. That's to run one AC at 900ah. Day and night you likely want about 2000ah.
Begs the question, why? You have an on board generator you can run off gas you already have. For free. Solar is NOT a cheap solution to getting off the grid, or more pointedly to the OP's question of running AC off the grid.
Technically you already have all the equipment you need to be off the grid and run everything in your coach - infinitely as long as you have fuel. Converting it all to solar however is pretty pricey, that won't really save you much other than about 1/2 gal of fuel per hour.
You could also argue that it's greener, but is it? The waste and ecological impact of manufacturing solar panels and batteries can be worse than the fuel you would burn and it's exhaust running your gen.
There are reasons why they don't make totally solar Rv's. it's not cost effective and I'm not sold that it's more green either. Just because the power comes from the sun does not mean that all the products and manufacturing methods of the equipment used to capture that power are green. Fabricating the panels requires caustic chemicals such as sodium hydroxide and hydrofluoric acid, and the process uses water as well as electricity, the production of which emits greenhouse gases. It also creates waste. So while Solar is green, the production of solar products really isn't. Kind of ironic that you need to use the same method to manufacture solar that you are trying to avoid.
