RV Solar Panel Installation Overview


As we spend a fair amount of time boondocking (camping without hook-ups), solar panels have given us the freedom to enjoy the peace & quiet of remote locatio…

24 thoughts on “RV Solar Panel Installation Overview”

  1. with this I can Save Batteries for my RV.. and I can Power my? gadgets with out worries of running some batteries…… Interesting

  2. Now I’m saving 70% of my electric bill by using my own home made Solar panel.5 months ago i was searching for how to make my own solar panel then i came across following site which give me a nice ebook with which i made my own Solar panel? under $200 which usually cost $2k.Catch that ebook here if you want.
    ABOUTSOLARCELLS.COMXA.COM

  3. A decent solar setup can run into the thousands, not the hundreds. Your best bet for information is to go to the iRV2 forums at irv2(dot)com. There are a ton of? people very knowledgeable about every RVing topic. If you join the forums (it’s free), you can ask specific questions and take part in the conversations. It’s a great resource.

  4. thanks so much for the reply.i live in my 35ft vectra ten? munths at a time ,and im thinking of doing the solar thing just to cut down on gen run time.iv put around 7,000 bucks in gas the past 2yrs,just got 2 new batterys,looking to install solar kit this summer.whats a good price range to spend,looking to go cheap.a few 100 or less.?2 125 watt panels should do what i need..have a 400 watt converter will get another bigger one,1000 watt.change all lights to led.be good to go

  5. Whether the power is going into the batteries from shore power via the power cord, from the generator, or from the? solar panels, if things are correctly installed, they will work together without a problem, seamlessly switching from one to the other when you plug in, fire up the genset, or when the sun comes out.

  6. im wondering how that works with the gen set,if you run ur gen, will it bother my rvs inverter.lets say you have a battery charger hooked up to ur house batterys and there still hooked up it will blow fuses in the inverter,will same happen with this set up,i see it was on ur other rv,so? must be a fix for it

  7. Great video. We have enjoyed boon-docking this snowbird season and are starting to look into solar. Thanks for the quick overview.?

  8. i saw something on youtube about converting your batteries to lithium ion and? wondered what benefits and the cost of it would anyone know anything about this?

  9. The place we bought them is no longer in business, but? we found them on AM Solar’s website. Go to amsolar(dot)com, and look under “Our Products”, then “Accessories & Misc”

  11. Definitely? not, since no RV has their A/C unit run through the inverter. All the panels do is charge the batteries.

  13. Yes, the brackets are screwed right into the roof. They’re set into a bed of Dicor brand self-leveling? lap sealant (available at any RV dealer or parts store) and then sealed with more Dicor.

  14. Did you bolt those brackets through? the roof or just us that epoxy to hold the brackets to the roof? What was the name of that epoxy?

  15. Interesting idea for RVs. I hadn’t considered it before for RVs but I guess it would increase? comfort and allow for more versitity of where you can park your unit.

  16. I kind of did this backwards. I was in the solar industry for seven years then went into the RV industry. Panels have gotten really cheap and it’s stupid easy to add a solar to an RV. If you? have an RV that’s prewired for solar, you be foolish not to do it. No noise, no pollution and all the power you’ll ever need if you add enough panels. Good advice on wire size too. Go heavy, it, doesn’t cost much more.

  19. We dug through all our old RV? receipts looking for details on those, but couldn’t find anything. We recall that they just came included with the panels, which we bought from Dave Eveland at Solar Summit in Corvallis, Oregon. Not sure if he’s still around, but we bought two sets of panels from him (the first two were for our Bounder) and he was great. You might be able to find him online, and I’ll bet he could help.

  20. Hi, Great video! Could you tell me the exact make and model of the rv solar panel mounting brackets you used? I would really like to get? that exact kind but I couldn’t find it. Thanks so much in advance.

  21. Our panels are polycrystalline. Technically, monocrystalline solar cells perform the best in low light conditions, since they are the most efficient, but they are also the most expensive. The new hybrid panels are reported to be nearly as efficient as monocrystalline, while being a little less expensive, so they could be a good option.? It might be wise to check with a solar installer in your area to see what they recommend, as they would have the most experience with your local conditions.

  22. are these hybrid panels ? can you tell me which are the best? mono or poly if I dont have sun all day at my place where panels will be ? pls help

  23. Also, how many house batteries for you have? (we have 4) If you want to test to see how long things last for you, try turning off you shore power, and monitoring your battery levels to see how quickly you? need to recharge. If your batteries deplete very quickly, you might need a larger battery bank to handle your dry camping needs. The panels were pretty expensive, but I understand prices may have dropped since we bought ours 7 years ago.

  24. Hi Jamie! I don’t think our solar panels will ever actually pay for themselves. We did it mostly for the peace & quiet when boondocking (from running the generator less often). Do you boondock very often, and? are you in places with lots of sun? If you’re hooked up most or all of the time, the panels don’t really do much other than help keep the batteries charged, since all of your 110-volt needs are coming from park power. The big plus for us is when we’re dry camping and using the inverter.

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