How Big Of A Solar Panel Do I Need For A Camper

Now as i said before this is a high power example more typical of a large offgrid caravan or motorhome but the approach is the same.

How big of a solar panel do i need for a camper.

How much solar power do i need for my rv. Solar panels are measured in watts. Solar panel systems have become increasingly popular over the past few years. First off stop thinking in number of solar panels.

Also keep in mind that solar panels experience a 75 90 drop in efficiency on cloudy days so it s good to have slightly more than you need when it comes to solar power about a 20 cushion if possible to account for less than ideal conditions. We ll begin with how solar panels on an rv work to give you a clear idea of what this type of setup entails. All solar panels serve a single purpose. Divide both sides by 30 and you need 1 33 100 watt solar panels.

How to choose a panel. They allow a user to harvest energy from the sun and turn it into electricity. A 300 amp hour camper battery for instance would need around 300 watts of solar power. There are a lot of starter kits that include them like this one i m not affiliated just found you an example.

The right size system can save you a ton of cash whether you have them installed on the roof of your home or the roof of your rv. For our specific power demands we need one 100 watt portable solar panel to recharge our rv batteries during our boondocking camping trips under normal conditions. After that preamble we get to the key question how big a solar panel do i need. It really comes down to efficiency.

Our final personal determination. But i have seen plenty of 160 watt panels. Now i ve not seen a 133 watt solar panel for sale. There are 100 170 200 225 265 300 335 and 360 watt solar panels.

If you have a compressor fridge and an inverter then go for 120w or above 150w if you have the space on the roof. In my opinion the answer is simpler than you think but not truly defined but here are some choices. So from our camping experiment we ve determined that a 160 watt panel will keep our batteries topped off most days and that kit fits the bill. To work out the size of the panel we need we simply take the 28 45 x 18v average voltage of a solar panel 512w.

How many solar panels do i need to power a camper.