Solar paneling or generator
Hello and thanks to all in advance I was wondering if this is even a good question. I plan to mostly camp in places with hookups but would like an occasional option to camp in dry places. I was w...
Forum Discussion
Depends on balancing:
How much power you use at maximum load (will inverter and battery bank do it)?
How much energy you use per day (can you get enough solar energy to replenish)?
Are there enough sunlight hours where you camp?
These can usually be answered in favor of solar if you do not ever use air conditioning, heat pump, or resistance heating/cooking, camp where there is sufficient sunlight, and are willing to carry enough storage and have enough room to install the required capacity of solar panels.
This is pretty much a lifestyle issue, i.e. can you simplify your "camping" lifestyle to do it on solar power. Not that different from deciding to adjust your home lifestyle to live of the grid. My grandmother's sister and her husband lived well into the 1970s without ever having electricity on their Montana homestead, and many of us two generations later lived most of our lives without benefit of mechanical cooling, even in subtropical climates and the Southwestern desert.
But if you want modern comforts like indoor climate control, you will be likely using some kind of fossil-fuel powered generator or attached to the power grid.
If this is about cost, a generator is much less expensive to purchase than a solar power and energy storage system of similar power output, and for a 2 KW generator, energy costs will be on the order of 30 to 60 cents per kilowatt-hour. E.G. my 4 KW generator uses 1/2 gph regular gas at half load (2 KW) and modern inverter generators are somewhat more efficient at that load.
How much power you use at maximum load (will inverter and battery bank do it)?
How much energy you use per day (can you get enough solar energy to replenish)?
Are there enough sunlight hours where you camp?
These can usually be answered in favor of solar if you do not ever use air conditioning, heat pump, or resistance heating/cooking, camp where there is sufficient sunlight, and are willing to carry enough storage and have enough room to install the required capacity of solar panels.
This is pretty much a lifestyle issue, i.e. can you simplify your "camping" lifestyle to do it on solar power. Not that different from deciding to adjust your home lifestyle to live of the grid. My grandmother's sister and her husband lived well into the 1970s without ever having electricity on their Montana homestead, and many of us two generations later lived most of our lives without benefit of mechanical cooling, even in subtropical climates and the Southwestern desert.
But if you want modern comforts like indoor climate control, you will be likely using some kind of fossil-fuel powered generator or attached to the power grid.
If this is about cost, a generator is much less expensive to purchase than a solar power and energy storage system of similar power output, and for a 2 KW generator, energy costs will be on the order of 30 to 60 cents per kilowatt-hour. E.G. my 4 KW generator uses 1/2 gph regular gas at half load (2 KW) and modern inverter generators are somewhat more efficient at that load.
