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Motorhome solar panel kits. They aren't just for breakfast anymore
Motorhomes can be a great way to get out and explore the country, as you travel around from town to town taking in the sights and spending time with your family and loved ones. As you travel around in your motorhome wouldn’t it be great if you had more money to spend on sightseeing with your family and less time paying high prices for gasoline and camping sites.
One way that this can be accomplished is with an RV (Recreational Vehicle) and Motorhome solar panel kit. By using the free solar energy that is available everyday you can charge up your battery bank (Group of batteries) and save on gasoline to run your generator. Not only is solar power a safe alternative, but after the initial setup cost it is free power.
No more storing smelly gasoline to run your noisy generator every night keeping you awake as you try to stay warm with your electric heat. You can even install the solar panels on top of your RV to charge up your battery bank as you travel. Saving you time and money. No more hunting for a gas station to fill up your gas cans every couple of days either.
When you first decide to go with solar power all the options can be overwhelming. The best plan of attack is to first decide on what your needs may be. This include's
- How many appliances you want to run
- How long (duration) will you be running them
- How much will a basic setup cost
- What about installation
- How many batteries will I need
The first question is how many appliances do you want to run. If you just want basic lights and maybe a refrigerator then a 100 watt system would be more than adequate. As you add appliances the wattage that you need increases. Another question is for how long at a time are you going to run these appliances. If you plan on living for more than a weekend at a time in your motorhome then you will want more than one battery in your bank. If this sounds like you then you may want to consider mounting the solar panels on top of the RV or motorhome so that your battery bank can charge up for you during the day as you travel around.
Although the cost is one of the biggest issues that people seem to have, most solar panel kits will pay for themselves in a short amount of time. If you figure in how many hours a year you run your gasoline generator and the price of gas, a solar panel kit is about half the cost.
One other thing about solar panels is that you can always upgrade later as you need more power. You can start off with a basic kit and add to it later. A basic kit includes
- A solar panel (or panels)
- A voltage regulator
- A power inverter
- All wiring needed for setup.
Some kits will include mounting hardware if you want to directly install on your motorhome. Also some kits come with a large cell battery bank, Although these kits cost a little more.
So is a motorhome or RV solar panel kit right for you. If you like to save money and provide free power from the sun for you and your loved ones then a solar panel kit for your motorhome or RV just may be the way to go.
Thanks for this info Theron. I'd seen it a few months back before we went on our annual monthly camping and fishing trip up to the Eastern Sierras. By the second week I was struggling trying to remember who it was that wrote this article. Figured ya' out today and just spent an hour or so between this, the links...your website. We're definitely going to be purchasing one... I just have to figure out exactly what we need. Currently we're running two Golf Cart 6V batteries on our trailer and like to use the stereo in the trailer during the day while dry camping, and a light or two at night. I'm not too good at figuring amp usage vs amp replacement, so this is going to take a while. I sure do appreciate all the info that you've provided... it's really going to help me sort everything out! Blessings upon ya', Randy (DoubleTap)
From the sounds of it, just a portable solar power generator would be more than enough for you. You could run the lights at night and let the solar panel (or panels) recharge your battery bank during the day. Glad someone read this, I was actually beginning to wonder if ANYONE had seen it....lol. Have fun, and thanks again.
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