Using Solar Power With RVs

You have never been on an RV travel before and so far the experience has been pleasant. You have enjoyed all the sights as you drove along and you and your family could spend some time together at nice, quiet places. You have chosen a nice, tranquil looking park for the night and have just plugged in all the utilities. Suddenly you become aware of a strange unnatural chugging of …a generator!

At times like this you wish you had an alternative source of energy. Well, with solar power, you do and if you use this regularly instead of regular power, you are also helping heal and rebuild our earth’s environment.

A good place to start would be to try and understand how solar power works so that you know the best methods of installing the solar panels and what you will need for that purpose. The sunlight hits these solar panels and generates power. This power is then stored in the 12-volt batteries that you will be storing in your RV.

However, before you actually go out and start looking for solar panels, you need to decide what amount of power you need. For this, run through the various things you will be using the power for and determine how much power each one will take. You can do this by studying the wattage mentioned on the devices. For example, if you are going to be using only a simple radio then the amount of power consumed will be far less than if you were using a fancy home theater system, playing on a wide-screen TV. The less the amount of power you use, the less number of solar panels you will need.

You can also see if there any changes you can make that will reduce the amount of power you will need. It has been proved that fluorescent lights, particularly the modern compact fluorescent lamps (CFL) use far less power than the traditional incandescent ones.

Once you have estimated the amount of power you may regularly need, you may go and purchase the necessary parts in order to install the panels. Start with the solar panels that will be mounted on top of your RV. As the panels start producing power, they will be used to charge up the batteries. A charge controller is a device that helps protect your batteries in case there is too much charging or too little charging. There are advanced digital charge controllers that can monitor the entire system and can show the latest status on an LED display. Strong mounting structures can help secure the panels to the roof of your RV – make sure they are waterproof and fairly weather resistant.

Finally, get an inverter that will provide you with the power you require and hook it up with the 12-volt batteries. The inverter will convert the DC from the batteries into AC of 110 volts to power up your TV, microwave and other electrical appliances.

Switch to Solar Power for your RV today and enjoy an uninterrupted supply of power.