How much solar to stick on a 22-24 foot "C"?
I am looking at class "C" rigs, but at best, they might have 100 watts on a panel. Realistically, for a shorter "C", how many watts should I be expecting to shoot for, on the roof? The battery bank ...
Forum Discussion
24 foot class C on an e350 here. As has been said, more is better. 300w is a minimum and 600w would be perhaps ideal IMHO for our style of dry camping. Of course YMMV depending on camping style and furnace use.
Here in Sunny SoCal I run a 160w panel on the roof and deploy a 100w portable as well when needed. When the sun is good, 260w is enough to get me recharged after a night of furnace use. I can start the generator to supplement if the sun isn't cooperating for any reason. If I'm not using the furnace at night, the 160w panel alone is enough with plenty of sunshine. For us, it's the furnace that kills the battery faster than anything. No furnace and we can dry camp easily for months without using the generator on a 105ah battery if we had to.
Other things help of course. I converted to LED. I use a Buddy Heater before bed and anytime we are awake when it is really cold outside. We don't have or want a TV and all that goes with it like a DVD player etc. I try to park in the sun in the winter. We frequently use flashlights at night when playing family board games. Basically, the RV becomes a fancy tent. I do use the fridge and the water heater so it's a little better than a tent. ;)
One real plus for us since adding solar is that the battery is always charged and ready to do when we pick our RV up from storage.
I started with just the 100w portable panel and quickly realized that even with perfect sunshine, that the single 100w wasn't going to cut it. It helped, sure, but not much. As others said, I think 1.5w per Ah is a good number and that's with perfect conditions. I am at about 2.5w per Ah and that works well for us weekend warriors living where the sun always shines.
Here in Sunny SoCal I run a 160w panel on the roof and deploy a 100w portable as well when needed. When the sun is good, 260w is enough to get me recharged after a night of furnace use. I can start the generator to supplement if the sun isn't cooperating for any reason. If I'm not using the furnace at night, the 160w panel alone is enough with plenty of sunshine. For us, it's the furnace that kills the battery faster than anything. No furnace and we can dry camp easily for months without using the generator on a 105ah battery if we had to.
Other things help of course. I converted to LED. I use a Buddy Heater before bed and anytime we are awake when it is really cold outside. We don't have or want a TV and all that goes with it like a DVD player etc. I try to park in the sun in the winter. We frequently use flashlights at night when playing family board games. Basically, the RV becomes a fancy tent. I do use the fridge and the water heater so it's a little better than a tent. ;)
One real plus for us since adding solar is that the battery is always charged and ready to do when we pick our RV up from storage.
I started with just the 100w portable panel and quickly realized that even with perfect sunshine, that the single 100w wasn't going to cut it. It helped, sure, but not much. As others said, I think 1.5w per Ah is a good number and that's with perfect conditions. I am at about 2.5w per Ah and that works well for us weekend warriors living where the sun always shines.
