Should I install a solar panel on the roof?

In novice terms, yes solar makes a lot of sense. But NOT for high amperage items like AC units. You could not carry enough batteries to run that for more than say 10 seconds.
Properly matched solar and batteries can carry you for weeks without having to use a generator. But you also need to understand how to conserve. Using gas when ever you can, keeping your electric consumption to an absolute minimum. That does not mean you cant watch TV for a couple of hours a nite, just dont leave a lot of lights on all day, using LED lights, running of propane everything you can and having a sufficiently large battery bank. That means at least 4-6VDC golf cart batteries.

Solar won't handle AC but it will offer other benefits. Besides providing battery charging for your daily use, it will keep the batteries charged when stored, resulting in better battery longevity. Coupled with an inverter, you can have 120 V available wherever you are.

It's not mandatory to have four 6v batteries to have solar charging and conserving on electricity will be be dependent on how much you're using and amount of sun available.

Pianotuna has posted a short punch list on how to implement solar. Maybe he'll post it again. Part of that list involves determining how much power you use. Downloadable spreadsheet to estimate power use.

As the previous folks stated large loads like the standard AC systems used in RV's require a lot more power than the typical RV Solar system can produce. I use a home made "swamp cooler" with a simple 12 Vdc fan (Fantastic Fan makes a great one) for cooling the majority of the time and the genset if the overhead system is required.

This document might be of some help

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxN-ydf9Fcj-V1lyWVdETGJmdkU/edit?usp=sharing

KJINTF wrote:
As the previous folks stated large loads like the standard AC systems used in RV's require a lot more power than the typical RV Solar system can produce. I use a home made "swamp cooler" with a simple 12 Vdc fan (Fantastic Fan makes a great one) for cooling the majority of the time and the genset if the overhead system is required.

This document might be of some help

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxN-ydf9Fcj-V1lyWVdETGJmdkU/edit

Linky

One 100 watt solar panel is about the same as running a small 10 amp battery charger, but only when the sun is shining, and only if the panel is always pointing at the sun.
A single panel on the roof will be inefficient, because it will seldom be facing directly into the sun, therefore it will be like even a smaller than a 10 amp battery charger.
IMO, if you are going w/ just 1 panel, and you have a place to store/haul it, I would use it as a portable panel, then you can move it a couple 3 times a day, making it much more efficient.
Fixed panels on the roof are great, providing you have more of them.
Would I dare say that 1 portable panel, could put out nearly the same as 2 fixed panels on the roof, in a days time ?

The size of your battery bank and inverter determine how large of a current demand you could power and for how long. Running an AC unit will require a very large battery bank and will only be able deliver this amount of power for a short duration leaving you with severely depleted batteries. Solar is always a good idea but it does not run electrical items directly. Solar provides charging capabilities when the sun is shining to restore amphours consumed from your battery bank. A properly sized generator will run your AC and charge your battery bank via your onboard converter. As of yet, we have not made the plunge for solar as we our power hogs and require a generator to fully enjoy the amenities available on our TT while off the power grid.

100w to 250w of solar should serve you well to keep two+ batteries charged. The batteries should have no trouble running an inverter to power a tv. Air conditioning not so much unless the entire system is scaled up about 20x.

It depends if it would be worth it to you, if you are already running a genset for the AC (because it takes a big battery bank to run AC for just a few hours, basically regardless of how much solar you cram on top of a tiny RV roof).

You would save gas but that may or may not be a concern. It would keep your batteries in good shape in storage, but if you have power in storage and a great converter that may not matter to you.

It will let you watch TV for longer with no genset noise, when it is cool enough out not to need to run the genset.

Jim

After playing this game plan of camping off the power grid for the past 5 years or so I think the best way to do this is to plan out all the low to medium wattage 120VAC things you want to run from an Inverter as well as the 12VDC items direct connected to the battery. This will determine how much battery capacity you will need for a one day/night run off the batteries.

This works great if you can re-charge your battery bank the next morning when allowed to run your generator by direct connecting with the trailer 30AMP shore power using the RV30A-15A long adapter. This will allow your "SMART-MODE TECHNOLOGY" Converter/charger unit to re-charge your battery back up to its 90% charge state so that you can do this all over again for the next day/night run off the batteries. For me this was the only successful way I could do it.

Having solar panels trickle charging your batteries during the day time when the sun is out good and bright will only add to less time needed to run the generator. You might get to skip a day maybe of even running the generator.

The generator is a required item to be successful as some days will be cloudy maybe even four or fives in a roll. You would be dead in the water then just depending on the solar panel. To be successful I think you must store all of the solar power using your larger battery banks.

We are able to run all the things we want to run now off our batteries and can do the 50% to 90% charge cycles for about 10-12 or so times in a roll until we have to do a FULL 100% charge state to the battery banks otherwise it will start doing damage to the batteries. This requires about 12 hours of running the generator using smart mode technology which of coure will not happen if you in a place where they won't allow you to run your generator that long of continuous time period. This is usually when we head for the house on our trips.

This is what I would plan for if you really want to start camping off the power grid with your trailer for extended times and be SUCCESSFUL about. This does not include using your air conditioner or high wattage microwave. It also gets exciting when the cold days are around and you have to use the propane furnace and high current 12VDC blower system for extended times. This cuts into your battery usage plan big time.

Running everything in a 30AMP trailer from solar panels only will not work without a "hugh" battery system to store the solar energy for those times when your solar doesn't work because of not enough sun light to operate them....

This is why I really got very familiar with what I need to do to live off the batteries first and then adding solar will be icing on the cake.

It all takes alot of planning

just my thoughts
Roy Ken

Thanks everyone for your information and thoughts. I have lots to consider and study!