Boondock electricity
Hello all, I am a new member and a new pop up camper owner, it is a 2005 rockwood 1640. I am interested in making it self contained for Boondock camping. from the research I have done it looks like i...
Forum Discussion
Hi, and welcome.
Before you invest a bunch of money in solar power and inverters, you need to figure out what power you will be using on a daily basis so you can figure out:
1) how many batteries you need. A 12V 225AH battery will provide 1.35KW before it is reduced to a 50% charge.
2) How much solar power you will need to charge them up during the day.
First out of the gate - don't even THINK about electric heat, it just is not practical to carry and charge enough batteries for that. (One of those batteries above would run a 1500 watt for less than 1 hour, assuming 100% efficiency of the inverter).
Even running the 12V fan on the propane furnace uses a LOT of power.
Most folks end up with a small generator (eg Honda 2000) to power the heavy duty stuff and charge the batteries. If they want to run A/C, then a large gen (3Kw to 4Kw) is usually required.
Good luck
Before you invest a bunch of money in solar power and inverters, you need to figure out what power you will be using on a daily basis so you can figure out:
1) how many batteries you need. A 12V 225AH battery will provide 1.35KW before it is reduced to a 50% charge.
2) How much solar power you will need to charge them up during the day.
First out of the gate - don't even THINK about electric heat, it just is not practical to carry and charge enough batteries for that. (One of those batteries above would run a 1500 watt for less than 1 hour, assuming 100% efficiency of the inverter).
Even running the 12V fan on the propane furnace uses a LOT of power.
Most folks end up with a small generator (eg Honda 2000) to power the heavy duty stuff and charge the batteries. If they want to run A/C, then a large gen (3Kw to 4Kw) is usually required.
Good luck
