100% electrical conversion?
Hello all. I have been thinking of going solar in the future as I love the idea of wild camping without the generator running all the time and I wanted some opinions on removing my gas tank/gas and g...
Forum Discussion
As much as people complain about water heaters in RVs NOT being hot enough as is, I can't see anyone willing to install less than the typical 1500W element that comes with them. To the OP, there are all-electric rigs but they typically come with a large generator and a large bank of batteries. And that large bank of batteries "only" lasts about 24 hrs powering "everything" but the AirCon before they need to be charged. Some things to consider:
1. Electric element in water heater is ~1500W AC. That's roughly 150A DC when running.
2. Convection oven is ~1600W AC when running. 160A DC.
3. Heating in all electric RV's are typically diesel powered and/or electric. I've read those systems provide about 65,000 btu's. They also have two 2kW electric elements.
Solar is not going to replace much of this. At least not on a RV where roof space is very limited. You could use in-floor electric heating to supplement the propane furnace so you wouldn't use as much. Also, you could swap out your A/C unit for one with a heat pump. You would use that instead of the furnace. Heat pumps typically only work down to 40F or so. We've used ours below that. Heat pumps use as much power as the AirCon though.
1. Electric element in water heater is ~1500W AC. That's roughly 150A DC when running.
2. Convection oven is ~1600W AC when running. 160A DC.
3. Heating in all electric RV's are typically diesel powered and/or electric. I've read those systems provide about 65,000 btu's. They also have two 2kW electric elements.
Solar is not going to replace much of this. At least not on a RV where roof space is very limited. You could use in-floor electric heating to supplement the propane furnace so you wouldn't use as much. Also, you could swap out your A/C unit for one with a heat pump. You would use that instead of the furnace. Heat pumps typically only work down to 40F or so. We've used ours below that. Heat pumps use as much power as the AirCon though.
