Solar panels

If you camp where air conditioning is needed you are pretty much limited to hookups due to generator hour limitations. If not and you have reasonable sun exposure and camp for more than a few days at a time, solar is a real nice way to go.

We use/harvest 100+ amp hours a day here in sunny Colorado at higher elevations and use the coffee maker, toaster, entertainment system, furnace, hair dryer and as many led lights as we want. No A/C needed here.

We are leaving in a couple of weeks for an all summer trip to Alaska and are taking the little 1k Yammy with us for backup, but hope to make it a completely solar trip (plus what we get from the tow vehicle).

garmp1 wrote:
Solar Panels? Are they really worth it?
We don't boondock much mainly cause we've become electric dependent.

That suggests you won't benefit.

Do some boondocking and learn. Install a battery monitor and learn about your current usage. Then decide about boondocking and solar, it might be in your future. If it's not for you then sell the battery monitor.

How much power does it take to be electric dependent? Our system provides a pretty plugged in experience including some A/C, electric cooking, microwave, even a bathroom heater for those chilly mornings. It's not a free for all but it's not bad either.

Worth it? It is if it fits your needs and you are going to use it. We tuck our trailer away in as remote of a spot as we can every trip and leave the generator at home. No campgrounds, no hook ups and conserving in bad weather means using the stove instead of the coffee maker and hot plate.

Now a system like ours is not cheap, small or light. A generator is more flexible and can provide more power instantly than a system many times the size of ours. It will also be much less expensive and easier to set up and use.

So what you want to do and when you want to do it will dictate what works for you. Generators are easy but there is the gas, noise and run times to deal with. You can't park in the shade with solar and it takes a lot to do a lot. That said, once you have it you will never fill it up or listen to it run.

DS works for a company that installs residential and commercial solar systems, so I could get a panel for just over cost. But - when we're off the grid we camp in shady sites so solar wouldn't work well for us.

I have 300W and wouldn't be without solar. On many shorter dry camping trips I don't need the generator at all. Another huge plus is the solar panels charge and maintain the batteries when in storage.

I have a 75W panel and a basic solar controller, and I'm glad I bought it. It has worked great for me. I don't like to be bound to CGs with hookups when there are so many nice, less crowded, out-of-the-way places to camp. 75 watts kept my battery topped up pretty well. Cost was less than $150 for everything about 4 years ago (and it's a little cheaper now). I ran the furnace once in the morning to take out the chill, and the rest was LED lights, some fan use, occasional water pump, and the usual parasitic draws. One group 24 battery. Camping alone. I'd set out the panel, connect a couple of plugs so the power ran in through the 7-pin pigtail, and occasionally move the panel to keep it out of shade. Very easy.

Your power needs may be different. But before buying a different RV, why not buy a 100W panel or two, a cheap controller, and some wire? You don't even have to mount the panels; just keep them portable if you like. Or if you prefer (and have room up top), mount them with either metal brackets or VHB tape. You might want to add one more battery if there's room, too. It would be inexpensive and easy to experiment with solar and find out what it can do for you.

Since adding solar, 250 watts, I have only needed the genny for DW's hot rollers.

Solar is more of a "why not?" type of thing than "why?". At the minimum, 100-150 watts of solar and a multi-stage charge controller ensures that the batteries are topped off when the rig is in storage.

Add some more, you can replace the absorption fridge with a compressor fridge.

Add a bit more, and the amp draw from the furnace fan is taken care of. Add a bit more, and augment the battery bank, and you can use the microwave and other appliances.

The beauty of solar is that once the system is set up and wired, it is passive. Just watch the electricity flow in.

We have 425 watts of solar, a Blue Sky 3000i controller, 4 ea 6 volt golf cart batteries, a 1500 watt inverter for the main coach and another 600 watt unit to run the residential fridge. With this system we can stay where ever it's legal to do so. We don't worry about power and if we don't get enough sun, we run our generator for an hour twice a day. For us that's worth it. YMMV.

We use our generator a great deal. It is perfect for us now. If we were retired and spent a lot of timing camping and traveling, I am very sure we would have both. I love the concept of solar and I am a gadget guy. But I am still a AC nut, so a generator would still be needed on the hot days.