Solar Power;;

[bachler]

Altho this is a Winnebago Link. I need some Ideas on solar power. Some of the posts Have been to say the least scarie;; My basic thought is 1 amp,DC =14 watts== $75.00 As panels do not see 120 AC volts One panel is about 12"by 24"= 1 amp. In order to use any 120AC. The solar power must go to the storage battery; then taken out from there and converted/INverted to 120 V AC That is taking 12 VDC and turning it to 120 AC ; So a 30 anp load on the 120 AC . that would put appx. a 300 amp load of the batteries; Now How many batteries do I need to carry around in A dedecated battery trailer. .?? How much will it cost me to set up a solar system.With all that money how (3500.00 Dollers) long could I run my genset since I am allready carring it along. Or do I just want to give it a free ride. and the added weight with all the solar set up. Please help me understand. Everyone keeps saying I should get a solar setup ?? I say Y

[CapnMorgan]

Could be that all the people recommending solar to you are wrong. Going solar is a lifestyle choice, and there are many reasons to do so, but not everyone shares those reasons. Some people want to boondock a lot, and object to the noise from the gen or they want to minimize trips to town to fuel up or want to save money by fulltime boondocking. Others are enviros and would like to not contribute to noise pollution and air pollution. Others may want to use their MH as a learning platform to learn what it is like to try to live on solar and how to install it. There are lots of reasons to do solar, but if you don't think it will pay with your lifestyle, then by all means don't do it. I would recommend that if you pull into a Wall Mart or a Rest area and you don't hear generators running and you see solar panels on the roof, please park on the other side of the lot.

[bigdale]

check this guy out first

http:/handybobsolar.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/solar-power-that-works/

[jlyon69]

My opinion is Solar is a very personal choice. If you like to hide in the middle of no where for 2 weeks and never run your genny, then a $3500+ system is for you. I can understand how good it feels to be able to do that. Solar is just neat!

Personally, I cant substantiate $3500 to save $5.00 in genny fuel if I dry camp over 1 day....which is rare for me. If someday my camping style changes, then I would certainly consider it. Not necessarily because I needed it, just because I think it's cool.

The 2 URLs below are a very interesting read. I just read them again last night. In part 2 Mark discusses Solar. After that, you should be able to make an informed decision.

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 1)

The 12volt Side of Life (Part 2)

[bachler]

I missed to post the fact Most used motorhomes we have looked at while compiling our information The generators had around 100 hours on them. That would figure 1 hour per gallon running time. So a 5/7 year old coach, the owner spent $400.00 for fuel. I'm still trying to justify The cost of the panel. Oh The newer Gensets Can not be heard from a distance. Like the older ones;; What to do????

[jlyon69]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bachler I missed to post the fact Most used motorhomes we have looked at while compiling our information The generators had around 100 hours on them. That would figure 1 hour per gallon running time. So a 5/7 year old coach, the owner spent $400.00 for fuel. I'm still trying to justify The cost of the panel. Oh The newer Gensets Can not be heard from a distance. Like the older ones;; What to do????

You will never justify the cost unless you are a dedicated boondocker, even then, it's probably not justified dollar wise, it's just what they want to do and how they want to do it.

It seems clear to me no one is going to jump in here and justify the cost of a $4000 solar system, and I'm sure they can't. However, if that's what they want, so be it. If you don't REALLY WANT solar power and you need a lot of justification, then you don't need one. To me (and I'm sure many others) solar is something you WANT, not NEED!

[tj4dirt]

Solar isn't for everyone. Unless you do a lot of boondocking in open areas solar may not be right for you. In the winter you will need more solar power than in the summer. A/C won't run off your batteries.
IMO 3 batteries and at least 200 watts of panels would be adequate for most people as long as the panels get good sun.

[UFO Pilot]

I have a grid tied solar system on my stick house. I did a lot of research on the system and the payback costs before it was installed. For 2010 my electric bill was $35, for 2011 it was $80. My monthly bill for electric averaged $150 before solar and my solar monthly payment is $160. Rate increases average 7% a year so I am at break even in year two.

I tried to do the same cost analysis for the RV and based on our typical "camping", solar is not cost effective. If we dry camped and didn't pay for a site or paid a lesser amount due to no utilities, solar might be cost effective.

The storage facility that we use doesn't have electric service available. I had a problem keeping the batteries charged while in storage and they had to be replaced a couple of time in 2 years. I now have a 130 watt panel that keeps my batteries charged year round. Not sure of the payback but not having to worry about the batteries anymore is worth it to me.

[lajuene]

We are going fulltime in the spring and we plan to dry camp half the time or 182 days a year. I would use the genny about 2 hours a day at 0.5 gal/hour and maybe more but .5/hr seems right for half load. This amounts to about $4/day times 182 days = $728/year. We plan to fulltime for many years so the solar system we want to install, min. 4 panels of 100 to 120 watts each for 400 to 480 watts total would pay for itself in 3 to 6 years I would guesstimate. After that it's $700/year in savings. This assumes no maintenance. These systems are very cheap to maintain but I suppose there will be occasional repairs. So solar seems an easy choice for us but if you are not going to dry camp that often then it makes no sense to have solar beyond a small battery maintaining panel for storage charging to maintain the batteries when not being used.

It really depends on your camping style. We really don't want to be in campgrounds any more than we can help. Just too closely packed. We have been in many and had a great time but for fulltiming it will be no more than half the time. Usually when visiting cities. You don't hang out at the rig that much in those cases so proximity to other campers is not too important. During the flooding this past year when we went to the Hershey PA RV show, our campground cancelled us due to flooding so we ended up at Walmart for a week and it was just fine even though we needed to run the genny 2 hours a day.

[Rmiscoord]

I think everyone has hit the high points well. But another consideration is the size of generator and type of charging system your planning on getting. Some systems can charge a Batt bank in a hour or two while others can take all day and maybe still not recharge your use.

[lajuene]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rmiscoord I think everyone has hit the high points well. But another consideration is the size of generator and type of charging system your planning on getting. Some systems can charge a Batt bank in a hour or two while others can take all day and maybe still not recharge your use.

Very true. I didn't think of that. We use to have a travel trailer and we used a Honda 2000i and a 3 stage smart charger. That worked pretty good for our 2 battery system. Using the genny on our TT's converter charger, a very chap one, took forever to charge hence the smart charger use. Our current MH has a 2000 inverter charger multi stage that charges pretty fast.