wanderingaimlessly wrote:
A more modest solar and battery package that meets most of your needs on a "most of the time" basis, with a portable generator to supplement charging during bad weather, or high use periods as a backup is very common.
^^^This
My opinion: The BEST way to see how much power each of your items will ACTUALLY drain from your batteries is to purchase a Battery Monitor. They have real fancy ones available. But I have used the $45 Aili (from Amazon...or try google) battery monitors and have been VERY happy with them. Pretty easy to set up and once you do it will take ALL guesswork out of your equations.
I'm not sure if you are planning on living in your RV full time and having the ability to run 100% off batteries for multiple (even cloudy) days is something that is critical for you or not. If you're just someone who uses their RV for occasional trips for a few days or a couple weeks, and you have a generator as a backup charging, or perhaps you drive (which charges your batteries) a bit every couple of days to a new destination.
Most casual (not-fulltimers) RV users can probably get by with 200-400AH of cheap lead acid batteries and 300-500w of solar power (assuming you are boondocking).
It would help to know HOW you plan on using your RV. How long will your trips be? Will you be boondocking for extended periods of time? I'm sure you are aware that every time you plug in at a campsite for a day, or drive for 4-5hrs, your batteries will generally get a good charging.
Before you overdue it on adding way too much batteries, and/or very expensive Lithium batteries, and/or a huge solar system....Start small and go on a trip and see how your battery needs work out.
Happy Camping!
Chris
