Solar Cell to charge battery for camper: Heater, A/C

[GiorgioM]

Hello:

I hope I am posting this in the right place.

I will be buying a small camper and I would like to get some solar cells to charge some batteries so i can run my A/C or heater.

Does anyone know what the drain is for a small portable A/C or small ceramic heater. I do have a 1000 W inverter.

How long will it take to charge a 12 V battery with a solar cell? How many watts of a solar cell woul I need?

Not sure if I am asking the question correctly.

[Mike90250]

Yes, this is the right place !

Yes you asked the question correctly.

sadly, solar electric is VERY expensive, and cannot do what you are asking.

Heat: call it a 700W heater, runs nightime, about 33% of a 9 hour night. That ends up being 700 Watts for 3 hours, 2100 watt hours
With a battery system, you need to have enough solar panels to harvest 2x that amount in a 4 hour, sunny, solar day. (Yes, I know the sun is "up" from 6:30am - 5:30 pm) but there is little solar power in it, in winter (that's why winter is cold) except for a few hours around noon.
To get 4200wh in 4 hours, that's about 1,000 watts of solar PV, or enough to cover about 4 campers. Cost, about $250us per 100w of PV, mounting not included.
Battery to store that much power would be at least 3x that wattage, and it may last 2 years. a 13Kwh battery @ 12V would be 1000 amps, or 10 ea, 100 ah deep cycle batteries, at $200 each.

Or you can buy a bottle of propane gas for a lot less.

Sorry, it just does not work well. Insulating the camper, a catalytic type propane heater and maybe a solar hot air heater on a window would work, but electric heat is not feasible.

[Sunking]

Not even remotely possible to do what you want. The batteries will weigh as much as the camper, the solar cells requires as much area as a large house, and the cost of $100K.

Ready to start?

[GiorgioM]

Thanks for the info... .I give up on it.

Now I will think about getting a generator...Maybe...

I can get electricity at the camp site, but it will cost me $3.50 a day and I plan to be there for around 3 months ($3.50 x 3 X 31 = $325.50) and probably do it twice a year.

[Sunking]

Thanks for the info... .I give up on it.

Now I will think about getting a generator...Maybe...

I can get electricity at the camp site, but it will cost me $3.50 a day and I plan to be there for around 3 months ($3.50 x 3 X 31 = $325.50) and probably do it twice a year.

That is cheap compared to solar and possible a gas generator.

What size ceramic heater are you talking about? Most I have seen are 1500 watts. So if ran for say 10 hour per day is 15 Kwh. That is a lot of energy and more than an average home uses in a day. Utilities on national average charge about 12 cents per Kwh so that works out to about $1.80/day.

Have you thought about a LPG heater?

[GiorgioM]

I have not thought about LPG heater.

The way that you put it... At $3.50 a day is not bad. ($1.80 for the heater). Then in the summer I can run the A/C all day. Plus the refrigirator will use up some. If I get a camper with an electric hot water heater that would even be better. Maybe convert the stove to electricity.

At home here I only use about 50$ for electricity with TV, Computer, Heat or A/C and big frig.

Thanks you very much.

[Sunking]

I would not get in a hurry about switching to electric cooking and hot water.

LPG can provide heat, cooking, refrigeration, and hot water. I am positive all are available for the camping and RV market. Air conditioning, lighting, and electronics are the only things that require electricity. Solar can do all that except air conditioning.