You don’t need to hire a professional to plan a solar photovoltaic system for your RV. Using these steps, you can plan the perfect system on your own and calculate how long it will take to pay for itself.

Our top market selection includes:

• Sunforce 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit
• Go Power! 95 Watt Solar Kit
• HQRP 50W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel

This guide is articulated in sections where each section explains a specific question.

- Estimate the Total Power You Need
- Calculate Your Total Power System Size and Cost
- Get an Estimate on Energy Savings and Payback

How can I increase the autonomy power of my motor home?

In a camper electricity and water are precious. We must therefore learn to save without depriving the indispensable.

To increase its autonomy, for example, you can install a solar panel. Who stays a week in the same place needs to find a way to recharge the batteries, and a good solution is the solar panel.

Be aware that they are expensive and fragile, just the branch of a tree to break, and is an additional weight.

We also need to park in the sun, if you parked in the shade not serve. If we want to increase the autonomy of our campers we can increase the number of panels.

Estimate the Total Power You Need

Get a pen and notebook. List every electrical device: each light, all chargers, TV, washer, dryer, microwave, A/C, etc.

List the wattage used next to the item, and indicate whether they are AC (alternating current) or DC (direct current, as in battery powered). Make two columns if you need to. List how long each device is used and multiply the hours used by the wattage to get the daily total used.

Add the total current needs in each column, and the total needed overall. Although this may seem daunting at first, it really is easy to do.

Decide if you want to run the items directly from the solar photovoltaic system or if you’ll use the system to charge a battery bank first then use the power. Those appliances labeled as AC will need an inverter to accept the DC power directly from the batteries. Inverters are available for individual appliances or for entire AC systems.

What and how should I install the solar panels on my camper?

A photovoltaic system area is based on:

• One or more photovoltaic panels
• A charge regulator to measure voltage and current
• A battery.
• 1 Mounting kit
• 1 Display light to see the different levels of solar energy
• 1 Parallel to keep the battery engine charged after the service battery is loaded from solar
• 1 Set of cables to connect the panel on the roof and maintai an excellent insulation against the infiltration of water from the roof.

How can I calculate the real power of a panel?

To calculate the power and let it work nearly 100% we need to consider:

1. Intensity of solar radiation (sunshine). The highest value is obtained only in exceptional weather conditions and practically never in real situations.
2. Temperature of 25 ° C but we all know that in a day of exceptionally high sunshine for sure the temperature is above 25 ° C. Higher temperatures cause a decreasing of the performance of the panel.
3. Incidence of perpendicular sunlight.

Calculate Your Total Power System Size and Cost

Calculate your total RV photovoltaic power requirements by using the following information located at: http://www.energysavers.gov/pdfs/208.pdf, and the following formula:

By using the correct incline of the rooftop panels, you can easily calculate how much energy can be collected and the correct number of panels needed for your RV.

Sound hard? Not really.

Let’s say, for example you’re going to stay in Arizona. A single 200-watt solar panel could provide you with 16,000 watts of power every day (with 8 hrs sunlight). Using your wattage total for your appliances (i.e., 80,000 watts/day) you’ll need a total of 5- 200 watt solar panels. The total cost for those will be $3,475.

How many solar powered panels?

Example 1: Big motorhome then big consumer

• Using 2 lights, refrigerator, TV, VCR, etc.
• Having 3 evenings of autonomy in summer, 2 nights in winter
• Power panels: 140 watts with adjustable solution
• 180 watts with non-adjustable

Example 2: Average consumer

• Power: 90 watts with adjustable solution
• 110 Watt not adjustable

Example 3: Small consumer mini camper

• 50 Watt power adjustable
• 65 Watt not adjustable

What’s the right wattage for caravans to run lights, TV etc?

In choosing the type of panel you can follow the following guidelines:

• 80 watt panel: It ‘a small plant, ideal for those who use the camper mainly in the warmer months and not use auxiliary utilities such as CTV or fans.
• 125 watt panel: The ideal solution for those who use the television.
• 140 watt panel: It represents the best solution for anyone, making use of summer vehicle, stopping long ago and wants to have a good availability of power for various accessories.
• 2 panel of 125 watt: The choice we recommend to all those who have a refrigerator compressor, or make an intensive use, even in winter.

Get an Estimate on Energy Savings and Payback

The economic benefits of an RV photovoltaic power system are easy to figure. Total how much in electricity costs you spend on your RV each month or as a year total.

Divide that figure into the cost for your system. This is the estimate of how long it will take the system to pay for itself. Keep in mind that this is a base figure. It doesn’t take into account the cost of electricity from one county or state to another. Since electricity costs are rising, you can easily estimate the payback time while you use your RV and enjoy free energy at the same time while using a notebook with “savings to date” listed.

How to install the solar panels?

The ideal would always have the sun perpendicular. This is achievable only with a rotating and tilting variable, but this is not always possible.

Our top market selection includes:

• Sunforce 60-Watt Solar Charging Kit
• Go Power! 95 Watt Solar Kit
• HQRP 50W Mono-crystalline Solar Panel

12 Volt Solar Battery Chargers are a convenient and lightweight alternative to charge portable applications such as:

• MP3 player
• Portable amplifier
• Sound speakers
• Cellular phone
• Digital camera
• LED lamps
• Smart Phone / PDA
• Game Player
• GPS
• Razors
• Gadgets
• Iphone / Ipod
• Nintendo DS
• Etc…

These chargers convert the sunlight to electricity and store it in an internal battery and then you disconnect that and plug your device into the chargers.

Before Buying your charger be sure to:

Verify it’s an universal Charger. This means replacing most or all your adaptors with just this one device. (i.e. the Brunton 26 Watt Foldable Solar Array)

(If You’re a traveler it’s good having AC Adaptor plugs for North America, Europe, United Kingdom, Austrailia)

Most chargers have included device Adaptors for the following phones and devices: Samsung, Nokia, Sony/Ericsson, LG, Mini USB (Motorola, Blackberry, Garmin, Iriver etc), Female USB (Mp3-iPod)

Verify it stores the power and how much time it stores the power (generally 1 year).

Verify how much power you can handle (generally you can have the power good to charge 2 cell batteries)

Verify if it’s an Hybrid Charger (i.e. the Solio Classic Solar Charger). This means the charger can draw its power from both the sun and standard wall AC 120v-240v electrical outlets (USB port is a good option too).

Another factor to consider is the wattage of the charger. Most chargers go from 1.5 to 130 Watts. The wattage is useful to calculate the time you’ll need to charge your devices.

Good performances for charging time are:

• An iPod for 18hours
• A mobile phone for 44 hours
• PSP for 2.5 hours
• A PDA for 22 hours

Consider that a good period to let the solar panel charge the internal battery is between 1-2 days.

To get the maximum from the solar power, is good to point it RIGHT at the sun.

Having a display on the battery unit is useful to know if the battery contains sufficient charge or not before you use it.

Accessories to look for:

• Carrying case (Useful is you are a backpacker)
• Inverter
• Charge Controller

The Deep Cycle batteries used in cars, RVs or Boats are designed to be discharged and then re-charged hundreds or thousands of times. These batteries are rated in Amp Hours (ah) – usually at 20 hours and 100 hours. Simply stated, amp hours refers to the amount of current – in amps – which can be supplied by the battery over the period of hours.

For example, a 350ah battery could supply 17.5 continuous amps over 20 hours or 35 continuous amps for 10 hours.

To quickly express the total watts potentially available in a 6 volt 360ah battery; 360ah times the nominal 6 volts equals 2160 watts or 2.16kWh (kilowatt-hours). Like solar panels, batteries are wired in series and/or parallel to increase voltage to the desired level and increase amp hours.

The battery should have sufficient amp hour capacity to supply needed power during the longest expected period “no sun” or extremely cloudy conditions. A lead-acid battery should be sized at least 20% larger than this amount. If there is a source of back-up power, such as a standby generator along with a battery charger, the battery bank does not have to be sized for worst case weather conditions.

The size of the battery bank required will depend on the storage capacity required, the maximum discharge rate, the maximum charge rate, and the minimum temperature at which the batteries will be used. During planning, all of these factors are looked at, and the one requiring the largest capacity will dictate the battery size.

One of the biggest mistakes made by those just starting out is not understanding the relationship between amps and amp-hour requirements of 120 volt AC items versus the effects on their DC low voltage batteries.

For example, say you have a 24 volt nominal system and an inverter powering a load of 3 amps, 120VAC, which has a duty cycle of 4 hours per day. You would have a 12 amp hour load (3A X 4 hrs=12 ah).

However, in order to determine the true drain on your batteries you have to divide your nominal battery voltage (24v) into the voltage of the load (120v), which is 5, and then multiply this times your 120vac amp hours (5 x 12 ah). So in this case the calculation would be 60 amp hours drained from your batteries – not the 12 ah. Another simple way is to take the total watt-hours of your 120VAC device and divide by nominal system voltage.

Using  the above example;

3 amps x 120 volts x 4 hours = 1440 watt-hours divided by 24 DC volts = 60 amp hours.

Lead-acid batteries are the most common in PV systems because their initial cost is lower and because they are readily available nearly everywhere in the world. There are many different sizes and designs of lead-acid batteries, but the most important designation is that they are deep cycle batteries. Lead-acid batteries are available in both wet-cell (requires maintenance) and sealed no-maintenance versions. AGM and Gel-cell deep-cycle batteries are also popular because they are maintenance free and they last a lot longer.

Photovoltaic panels are a good source of portable power to use for our devices and gadgets. Latest generations of solar panels are more powerful and employ less time for charging….for a wise investment.

You can use this kind to power or use solar to charge batteries for Ipod, Iphone, Mp3 Players, sometimes a laptop (depending on output of the panel), remote field testing, surveillance, small TV/VCR, video recorders, work lights, RV and Boat batteries.

In the market there are different type of panels with different type of wattage output. From foldable (i.s. Brunton Solar Charger) to crystalline panels, from power pack to instant charging and so on…in the rest of this site you can read a list of these tools and reviews based on different factors.

For business, these units can help maintain necessary communications or productivity like powering battery for lighting or run small devices.

For residential, if you’re not ready to invest in a residential solar power system, or you only need a small amount of power, having an inverter allows you to run appliances with a wattage draw of up to 300 continuous watts.

For gadget lovers, a portable solar panel is a good investiment exspeccially for having an unique source of free energy to power cell phones, mp3, cameras etc… while you are in remote destination (think to hiking or camping) or just out of home (i.e. parks).

The battery is the main component of your power station. Monitoring means knowing the state of charge in your battery. You can choose a voltmeter or use a purpose built monitoring system.

Using a 12 volt battery full of charge let’s say … 120 amp/hours.

If we measure the voltage of fully charged 12 volt battery with nothing connected it should be around 12.6 volts.

If we connect a reasonable load to the battery the voltage will drop to around 12.1 but the battery is still full of charge at this point.

If we connect a charging source to the battery, for example an 80 watt solar panel, the voltage will rise to about 15 – 16 volts.

If the battery was flat we might see the following:

• No load: 12 volts
• With load: 11.0 volts
• Charge connected: 13 volts

Solar Power can work well for most items except large electric appliances (water heater, clothes dryer and electric stove).

The basics of solar power:

Using solar power to produce electricity is not the same as using solar to produce heat.

• Solar thermal power is applied to produce hot fluids or air.
• Photovoltaic power is used to produce electricity.

Photovoltaic Panels

A photovoltaic panel is made of silicon, which becomes charged electrically when subjected to sun light. The more an array is situated off of true south the less the total insulation value.

To obtain electricity, solar panels are directed at south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hemisphere at an angle dictated by the geographic location and latitude of where they are to be installed.

The most common output is intended for nominal 12 volts, with an effective output usually up to 17 volts.

The intensity of the Sun’s radiation changes with the hour of the day, time of the year and weather conditions.

How to Calculate Solar Power

To be able to make calculations in planning a system, the total amount of solar radiation energy is expressed in hours of full sunlight per m².

One hour of full sun provides 1 kWh/m² (the solar energy received in one hour on a cloudless summer day on a one-square meter surface directed towards the sun).

Before establish the size of our solar system we need to set:

• The sunlight levels (insulation values) of our area
• The daily power consumption of our electrical loads.

Insulation, or sunlight intensity is measured in equivalent full sun hours. One hour of maximum, or 100% sunshine received by a solar panel equals one equivalent full sun hour.

For 1 day consider only six hours of equivalent full sun

(Consider reflection due to a high angle of the sun in relationship to your solar array and high angle and the amount of the earth’s atmosphere the light is passing through).

Because of these factors the most productive hours of sunlight are from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

Components used to provide solar power

The four primary components for producing electricity using solar power are:

1. A Solar panel Charger
2. A Charge controller (i.e. Brunton Solar Charge Controller)
3. A Battery
4. A Solar Inverter

Solar panels charge the battery (the controller insures proper charging) then the battery provides DC voltage to the inverter that converts the DC voltage to normal AC voltage.

Solar Panels

The output of a solar panel is usually stated in watts. Wattage is determined by:

V (volt) x A (ampere) = W (watt)

i.e. a 60 watt solar panel can (If an average of 6 hours of peak sun per day) produce an average 360 watt hours of power per day.

The inverter 12 to 220Volt transforms the battery current to 220V to use in equipment operating at 220 volts.  Ideal for television, computer, mobile phones, etc… , compressors, refrigerators etc. …

Most solar energy systems generate DC current which is stored in batteries. Nearly all lighting products, appliances, motors, etc, are designed to use alternating current, it takes an inverter to change the battery-DC stored at the standard power (120 V AC, 60 Hz).

In an inverter, a direct current (DC) is moving back and forth to produce an alternating current (AC).