I'm wondering how many of you are using solar panels with your RV's to charge your batteries? <br><br>What kind did you buy?<br><br>How big is it? (Watts/AMps)<br><br>How much did you pay?<br><br>How well does it work?<br><br>While camping last weekend we came across a guy who only had a 50w 2amp (I think) solar panel and he said that he never has to use his generator while camping. That peaked my interest and am looking into getting one.<br><br>Any comments are appreciated.<br><br>Thanks,

 

I put a 75 watt on mine and it works great! Still careful to conserve power but no longer worry about batteries, do need to check the water in batteries on a regular schedule. I also added a gas light to save on power, it also throws enough heat to take chill off if it is a cool evening to delay starting furnace until sleepy time. Panel cost $485 plus $100 for install all parts were included to prevent overcharging batteries and cable and connectors.<br>Company was here in Scottsdale Az let me know if you need the name, I will need to look it up, can't remember right now.<br>Several camping freinds have panels are also happy with them.

 

The size depends on whether you are trying to maintain your batteries while stored, or charge them for living.<br><br>Here are a couple sites that will give you lots of information including worksheets to figure out your needs.<br><br>http://www.rvsolarelectric.com/<br><br>www.mrsolar.com<br><br>

 

It all depends on how much power you are planning on using. Todays campers have large TV's, sattelite receivers and a multitude of power users that the older campers never had. We have found the more years you camp, the more things you acumulate that use electricity.<br><br>We have used solar panels on three fifth wheels for over 22 years. Originally we purchased 4 / 33 watt panels and got along fine, however as the years passed we used more and more power and today we have a total of 495 watts on the roof with 6 golf cart batteries in the basement. This might seem like overkill but in the mountains, the sun doesn't shine every day. I would say most of our batteries are used up powering the 25 inch TV and sattelite receiver.<br><br>I would add that we are away from a power line about 4 months out of the year so we are totally dependant on the solar system. If you are only going to be using solar for short periods and conserve your batteries, you can get by on considerably less wattage.<br><br>Panels can be purchased these days for less than $4 per watt which means you can have a pretty nice setup for not a load of money. The panels I bought in '81 cost me $10 per watt. If you are planning on being away from electricity AND do not need air conditioning for extended periods, solar cannot be beat. If you need the airconditioning, get a generator. Hope this helps.

 

That helps alot. We aren't usually gone for very long periods of time so I think solar will work great!