100% electrical conversion?

[Coro77]

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 going 100% electric. I understand, from searches, that a lot of people think it's a silly idea as the gas is the quickest way to heat water/rv....I understand all that. What I want to know is if this is doable off of only solar and if anyone has gone that route and how they feel about it after it was done? What would be the pros (if any) and cons. My MH is 30 amps if that makes a difference?

[dougrainer]

Coro77 wrote:
Thank you all for your advice, your experiences and/or opinions - it has all giving me a lot to think about. I do have a generator and I have NO plans of ever getting rid of it or never using it. The main thing is I don't like is just having a lp gas tank in my rv. I wanted to see if getting rid of it is doable and worth it or am I just going to have to get rid of my hang ups and press on with it.

How are you going to run the Refer? What are you going to do when you need the heat that only a furnace can supply? Going 100% electric is a noble idea, but why would you want to remove the LP system? It does not take up that much room and could be used as a back up if needed. Doug

[Coro77]

Thank you all for your advice, your experiences and/or opinions - it has all giving me a lot to think about. I do have a generator and I have NO plans of ever getting rid of it or never using it. The main thing is I don't like is just having a lp gas tank in my rv. I wanted to see if getting rid of it is doable and worth it or am I just going to have to get rid of my hang ups and press on with it.

[msiminoff]

Coro77 wrote:
What I want to know is if this is doable off of only solar and if anyone has gone that route and how they feel about it after it was done?

I removed my noisy and fuel-hungry propane powered Onan generator altogether and I run most of the stuff in my TC (obviously much smaller than an average RV) from my battery bank with is solar-charged. This includes my microwave and even the roof A/C for short periods of time. In addition I have a 12Vdc heating element in my hot water tank which operates as a diversion load from my solar charge controller.

However, most people prefer to cook with a petroleum fuel source (e.g. propane or diesel)… but this could be done with an electric cooktop if one had enough battery capacity. Heating the inside of the RV with solar-electric alone is much bigger challenge… conveniently there are low (or zero) power diesel and/or propane-catalytic heaters available if you choose to go that route.

I can't honestly say that my TC is 100% solar powered. Even with the ability to run heavy loads on solar/battery/inverter there are still times when I choose to fire-up my generator (Honda EU2000) and/or charge my batteries from the truck's alternator. For running a convection oven or A/C for any length of time, a generator really is a must-have item. As an example, we camped in Paso Robles, CA this summer and it was 108ºF… I was very happy to have my generator with me 🙂

So, to answer your question; Depending on your power needs, habits, and the type of camping you do, Yes, it can be done! But it is very expensive and there are big challenges with finding space for enough panels and power storage.

Cheers,
-Mark

[JiminDenver]

pianotuna wrote:
Hi,

Before I was full time I used to use my solar and battery bank to run the water heater, particularly when the battery bank was full for the day.

Jim, the ten gallon water heater on mine is 1200 watts and takes 90 minutes to reach full temperature. After that it cycles about every four hours and draws power for 15 minutes. My guess is that a 600 watt heater would take about 180 minutes to get to the first cycle.

Thank you.

[09FLSTC]

I just like the idea of "wild camping" ha but a small generator would certainly change your world and you don't have to run it long. Compromise.

[mena661]

PT's aircon is not your typical 13.5 or 15k BTU unit.

[pianotuna]

Hi,

Before I was full time I used to use my solar and battery bank to run the water heater, particularly when the battery bank was full for the day.

Jim, the ten gallon water heater on mine is 1200 watts and takes 90 minutes to reach full temperature. After that it cycles about every four hours and draws power for 15 minutes. My guess is that a 600 watt heater would take about 180 minutes to get to the first cycle.

If I know I will have shore power after a day's travel, I run my absorption fridge from the battery bank/alternator/solar/inverter. The fridge uses about 5 kwh per day.

For fun, in the past, I have heated the water using a five minutes on ten minutes off duty cycle, so as not to over stress the alternator.

If there is room on the roof for 1500 watts of solar and a hybrid inverter is used, it is theoretically possible to run the air conditioner. The cost works out to about double that of a Yamaha 3000 sIEB inverter generator.

I have run my roof air successfully from the inverter without the engine running on my class C. Because I have manual control of the alternator to house bank charging circuits, I am able to keep the duty cycle down to a safe level. I do use the fan only setting on the ducted roof air to help distribute cool air from the dash air throughout the RV.

I discovered last summer (before the hybrid inverter) that the roof air would cycle off when I ran it from the generator, when using the dash air.

[mena661]

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.

[JiminDenver]

Ok Just for giggles I looked up the 12v water heaters with stats. Not bad for $58.99. They come in a range of watts from 200-600w and will shut off anywhere from 120F-200F.

The 120v heaters I saw were 1500w and I know they are slower than gas. how long would it take for 600w?

Here's the link 12 water heaters with stat

[KD4UPL]

Solar on an RV won't come close to powering the water heater or the air conditioner. It won't provide enough power to heat the unit in the winter either.

1 gallon of propane is equal to 27 kWh of electricity. It would take a 6,750 watt solar system to make 27 kWh of electricity on an average day in VA.

[JiminDenver]

I was just saying in another thread that we could do more with the solar, it's a neat idea but I can't justify the expense. It would be 10 years before I burnt enough propane to pay for the upgrades. The tanks would still have to stay for the furnace and cloudy weather.

[Golden_HVAC]

Hi,

The water heater would use about 8,800 Btu's per hour, or about 2 KW per day to replace just one hour of propane run time.

The refrigerator can be replaced with a high efficiency electric refrigerator, and then install a pure sign wave inverter to handle the high torque of the compressor, and you can save running that load on propane. Yet even that load is only about 10 gallons of propane in around 6 weeks of camping. I used to fill with about 15 gallons of propane every 6 - 7 weeks while full time in the RV, and mainly using just the refrigerator and water heater in the summertime. Winter I would use a lot more propane to heat the RV, depending on where I was located.

I have a 415 rated watt solar system, and it charged the batteries only. I did not use the inverter to power the refrigerator or water heater.

Fred.

[2oldman]

Coro77 wrote:
I understand, from searches, that a lot of people think it's a silly idea as the gas is the quickest way to heat water/rv...

And what were the reasons given in the posts that you read?

[RoyB]

Just keep in mind that 30AMPS is at the 120VAC level. It will be 300AMPS at the 12.3VDC level

A typical solar panel only puts out 5AMPS at 12.3VDC so you will need a barn full of panels to get to 300AMPS only when in HIGH SUN. You will need a bunch of batteries to store enough power to get you thru the night when the sun goes down...

Pretty big task...

just saying
Roy Ken