Solar panel overkill?
I have been mentally designing a solar system for our small class C. I have 2 6 volt GC batteries and have no extra room to add more. I was originally thinking of installing a 24V 235 watt panel fro...
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I would not recommend a 200+ watt solar panel for any RV. Unless you have a really large area that is not over a curved roof that will make it to high in the wind while driving.
The problem with 200 watt panels is there is to many square feet of panel, and typically only 4 mounts. You can have a lot of uplift during certain driving conditions. Or the pane can act like a wing, and take off, ripping it's mounts from the top of the RV.
My larger pair of panels are 120 watts and the pair cover the front 4' of my motorhome. They whistle while driving, probably catch a lot of air, but have not managed to pull their mounts loose in 10 years of use and about 25,000 miles driving.
A RV can use 35 amp hours daily to run just the refrigerator, CO and propane detectors. Then add your other loads.
I like to watch a lot of Direct TV, and that means about 7.5 amps per hour of running the TV, many days that is about 15 hours per day.
Lights use about 1.1 amps per hour. Figure about 15 AH daily, and you will be able to run 13.5 hours of light. This can be 3 for 4.5 hours, or 2 for 6.5 hours, or a mixture.
The water pump is a nominal load - 7 amps per hour, and 1 hour can pump 2 GPM and empty a 120 gallon tank. So a 60 gallon tank is only 3.5 AH for the whole trip.
Furnace is much larger load. Running it 3 hours per night will be 18 to 24 amp hours.
Good luck with this project.
Fred.
The problem with 200 watt panels is there is to many square feet of panel, and typically only 4 mounts. You can have a lot of uplift during certain driving conditions. Or the pane can act like a wing, and take off, ripping it's mounts from the top of the RV.
My larger pair of panels are 120 watts and the pair cover the front 4' of my motorhome. They whistle while driving, probably catch a lot of air, but have not managed to pull their mounts loose in 10 years of use and about 25,000 miles driving.
A RV can use 35 amp hours daily to run just the refrigerator, CO and propane detectors. Then add your other loads.
I like to watch a lot of Direct TV, and that means about 7.5 amps per hour of running the TV, many days that is about 15 hours per day.
Lights use about 1.1 amps per hour. Figure about 15 AH daily, and you will be able to run 13.5 hours of light. This can be 3 for 4.5 hours, or 2 for 6.5 hours, or a mixture.
The water pump is a nominal load - 7 amps per hour, and 1 hour can pump 2 GPM and empty a 120 gallon tank. So a 60 gallon tank is only 3.5 AH for the whole trip.
Furnace is much larger load. Running it 3 hours per night will be 18 to 24 amp hours.
Good luck with this project.
Fred.
