As ever more campers wander away from the city in their own recreational vehicle, they discover that all of their modern conveniences take a lot of electricity. This is no problem if you are plugged in at a campground, or if you move frequently and the batteries charge while you drive. For other times when you park in an out of the way locale for days, the castle lights can really grow dim as the batteries slowly wear down. Two solutions suggest themselves. The first is to bring a gas powered generator, and run it for a few hours at a time to replace the energy used up. This will cost a lot of money for fuel and will create noise pollution.
The problem with gasoline powered generators is that they tend to be darn noisy, and they cost money for fuel. Many people opt for silence, and want to use the power of the sun to charge their system. That is where RV solar panels come in. With a properly installed system of the right size, you will never run out of electricity.
It is possible to hook several RV solar panels together, and commonly they are wired in series to provide a greater output. These panels are made of many small cells all formed into a rigid panel. Photo-voltaic cells gather the energy of the sunlight and convert it to electricity, which flows to your battery bank.
Quite often, the panels are mounted on the roof and attached so that they can be raised to catch the light of the sun when in use. The disadvantage to these is that the reailer needs to be properly positioned so they face the correct way, and this is not always possible. A second method is to place the solar rv panels on stands on the ground, and run the wire over to the trailer. This way, as the sun moves the panels can be repositioned.
Electricity is generated from the sunlight, and passes through a charge controller to the battery bank. The charge controller makes sure your batteries don't get overcharged and ruined, and most charge controllers have circuitry which makes the charging cycle more efficient.
The batteries need to be deep cycle rv batteries, which typically are what most motorhomes, campers and trailer already have. You may need to add more batteries for extra storage capacity, depending on how much electricity you will be using.
If you don't plan on running any 110V household appliances, then you won't need an inverter. Otherwise, if You want to be able to use ordinary devices such as your microwave or DVD player, you will need an inverter in your system to convert 12 V DC to 110V AC. There are several sizes of inverters, to match your specific needs.
If you are buying a new RV, you can pick a model with these parts included, or have the dealership order them and get them installed professionally. If you are the handy man type, you can find all of your components yourself and do it yourself. A trip to the RV dealership might still be a good idea, since you can ask them questions and they will help you decide how big of a system to install.
