Dry camping and solar power

[Tinagtnp]

I have a 20ft keystones hideout 177hls. I will be dry camping for 6 months from may to October. The only major issue I'm running into is powering my a/c unit. I understand that my 12v battery won't power it and I don't like the noise of generators. I am wondering what my options are, an estimate of how much the mods would cost, and any revelent information I should take into account.

I'm new to RV life and appreciate any info.

[kerrlakeRoo]

OK, so you are going to work daily , that likely means staying in one place for the most part. Is the actual campsite chosen? How hot does it get there in the summer? Can you move a short distance to get to higher or lower elevations?
Fans like a fantastic fan are very low consumers of power, something like that can help, a pair of batteries giving you around 200 amp hrs and a couple of hundred watts of solar can come close to keeping up with that if you dont use much power otherwise.
If you are parking on private land, can you park in a shaded spot and leave the solar panels out where they will get plenty of full sun? Or are they likely to be stolen?
Do you have facilities available for getting water? And for getting your tanks emptied?

[Lwiddis]

Dogs don’t sweat, time2roll.

[time2roll]

You will need 2 to 4+ kW of solar and a sizable battery to run air conditioning with solar.
The good part it the panels will also shade the entire RV.

Otherwise you are looking for a generator. Probably need an extended run fuel tank too.

Or just sweat it out.

[Lwiddis]

“but I'll have my dog with me and I don't want to leave her in a hot rv while I go to work.”

Leave a dog in an RV while you go to work? You shouldn’t be allowed to have a dog.

[azrving]

Tinagtnp wrote:

kerrlakeRoo wrote:
I guess you can see that solar and batteries dont play well with an AC system. But , do you really need them? Are you looking at moving frequently, or largley staying put? What region will you be in? You may not need much if any AC if you will be moving during that time frame to match the weather to your needs. Elevation as well as moving farther north will give you cooler temps. Just realize that the nice shaded spot in a forest is also shading any solar panels you install and reducing their effectiveness.

Give us an idea of what your goals and conditions arer and folks will be glad to offer advice and assistance.

I'll be in Wyoming so it doesn't get terribly hot here, but I'll have my dog with me and I don't want to leave her in a hot rv while I go to work. Idk about shade just yet, I haven't had an opportunity to scope out the area. I would even be willing to run a fan, but how does that affect my battery / charging options?

A fan is far different than AC in power consumption. Now you are talking about batteries and solar power. It opens the door to just about endless conversation. If you leave the rig all day you probably dont want the panels on the ground so they are in the sun they could disappear. If you leave the dog in the RV you need a bullet proof plan for someone to check on the dog just in case the fan quits or it gets too hot for the dog. If there is any way possible it would be better to be plugged in somewhere.

This is the issue when people want to live in everything from a car or van to an RV. You could leave your dog all day if it was cold out and you came back and it was 20 or 30 degrees inside but if you come back and it's 120 in there he may not do well. I was just telling DW that our rig for example in 80's weather the ac will probably only pull it down to about high 60's. It ran all day and never dropped below 70 because of the sun beating on it. The next thing to do is get it under a carport structure.

[Tinagtnp]

kerrlakeRoo wrote:
I guess you can see that solar and batteries dont play well with an AC system. But , do you really need them? Are you looking at moving frequently, or largley staying put? What region will you be in? You may not need much if any AC if you will be moving during that time frame to match the weather to your needs. Elevation as well as moving farther north will give you cooler temps. Just realize that the nice shaded spot in a forest is also shading any solar panels you install and reducing their effectiveness.

Give us an idea of what your goals and conditions arer and folks will be glad to offer advice and assistance.

I'll be in Wyoming so it doesn't get terribly hot here, but I'll have my dog with me and I don't want to leave her in a hot rv while I go to work. Idk about shade just yet, I haven't had an opportunity to scope out the area. I would even be willing to run a fan, but how does that affect my battery / charging options?

[KD4UPL]

Just to give you a very rough idea:
The AC unit on my camper used about 900 watts running. Let's say it runs for 25% of the time. That's 5,400 watt/hours a day. You would need about 1,500 watts of solar panels to make that much power on an average day. Let's assume half that power is used when the sun isn't shinning bright. You would need a battery bank capable of storing 450 Ah to make it thru one night. Often systems are designed to last thru about 3 days of cloudy weather. That would mean you would need a 1350 Ah 12v battery bank. In order to recharge the bank in one day while also running the AC you would need to double the solar array to 3,000 watts.
A 3kW off grid system installed turnkey (not that there's room on an RV) on a house would be around $20,000.

[rbpru]

It is in the math. A TT AC draws about 13 amps on 120 volts, about 1500 watts. That is at least 160 amps at 12 volts through an inverter. Most folk recommend a 2500 to 3000 watt generator because of the starting current.

That would be quite a battery bank at a 50% duty cycle and 40 lbs. per battery.

It is hard to beat 120 volts from the power post.

[coolmom42]

You can get a quiet inverter generator, or stay at facilities with electric supply. Those are your only reasonably priced options.

[Son_of_Norway]

All is not lost. Is this in the SW or similar dry area? Try a roof-mount swamp/evaporative-type cooler. Google it and you will find a few different models. I saw one on Alibaba. I have been in an RV that was being cooled by one and it worked quite well.

On Edit: Try TurboKOOL

[kerrlakeRoo]

I guess you can see that solar and batteries dont play well with an AC system. But , do you really need them? Are you looking at moving frequently, or largley staying put? What region will you be in? You may not need much if any AC if you will be moving during that time frame to match the weather to your needs. Elevation as well as moving farther north will give you cooler temps. Just realize that the nice shaded spot in a forest is also shading any solar panels you install and reducing their effectiveness.

Give us an idea of what your goals and conditions arer and folks will be glad to offer advice and assistance.

[afidel]

donn0128 wrote:
Not a bit. You simply cannot pack enough batteries into the trailer to run an AC unit. As for solar? Nope, not even enoigh room. Do yourself a favor and give the idea up.
Now, if you do want solar, you need to figure out how many amp hours your going to use per 24 hours and then come up with a plan to half that amount. Now you need to figure out how many batyeries your going to need to do that. Then you can come up with a plan for solar. 250W of solar panels is posibly good for 4 golf cart batteries and maybe 200 total amps per day.

Actually you can, but it costs. Both the Wynn's and Technomadia run AC off solar plus lithium setups, the Wynn's did it in their RV and now their Catamaran, Technomadia in their Class A. You're not going to run it all day, but a few hours during the peak of the daily heat is possible.

[Lwiddis]

A/C and electric heat are the big “can’t do” for solar. Camp in areas and months that are cooler areas like I do...of course it was 105 at Stovepipe Wells on Sunday, March 12! (I still enjoyed it)

[azrving]

You have to plug in.

[donn0128]

Not a bit. You simply cannot pack enough batteries into the trailer to run an AC unit. As for solar? Nope, not even enoigh room. Do yourself a favor and give the idea up.
Now, if you do want solar, you need to figure out how many amp hours your going to use per 24 hours and then come up with a plan to half that amount. Now you need to figure out how many batyeries your going to need to do that. Then you can come up with a plan for solar. 250W of solar panels is posibly good for 4 golf cart batteries and maybe 200 total amps per day.