Travel Trailer Solar Noob

[JohnSWA]

Hi folks! I'm totally ignorant to the solar scene and what I'd like to do is maintain the battery power for my 18' travel trailer and charge two other batteries that I'll use for a trolling motor on my boat when fishing. Maybe a solar panel to supply power to the trailer since we won't be running the airconditioner or the microwave oven. I'm not sure what our power useage will be since I keep my TT up in the mountains, but all my wife and use are the lights, stereo and small rv fridgerator/freezer.

I'm looking forward to your suggestions.

Thanks!

[Mike90250]

PV panels are made with glass, and so you need to discover what sort of flat areas you can bolt the to on your roof, that's not shaded by vents or antennas. Or you can make "sandwich board" style weighted ground mounts, if not too worried about theft, portable for you = easy to steal.

You won't be able to fit enough to charge trolling batteries, you will need a small generator for that.

Propane is the way to cool the fridge, till you are about 9 months /year using it, then you can consider solar 12v for it. Propane is a lot cheaper than PV cells and batteries. Look for the power label for your fridge, or if it has a 120V cord, plug that into a Kill-a-watt meter, and measure for a week, to see what your consumption is, in KWh. You can then use that number to figure out the needed PV requirement.

Look into the honda / yamaha inverter generators with auto throttle, they are quiet, and sip fuel, 2000w is a handy size, and can power a pair of beefy smart chargers for your trolling batteries, and also top off the RV house battery.

[JohnSWA]

Thanks Mike! I guess that I should stick to using my generator then. I guess that makes good economical sense. I have a smart generator that runs everything and is very quiet, so I guess I'll stick with that. Thanks for your help!

[Mike90250]

Glad to be of help. I don't want to be rabid, and pure "Solar at any cost" but sometimes it's not always the best answer. If you have a spare $2K laying around, it's worth putting in a 400W system, if it fits. RV's are tough because of the roof and highway speeds. Different conditions, if you were boondocking for a month at a time - the answer would be different.