Solar energy. It's free. It's conveniently available for the part of the day while we're awake. And the cost of solar panels and equipment keeps getting cheaper. At about 1 USD per watt, a 100 watt panel and batteries can supply more than enough lights and charge phones or tablets for an extended camping trip.
First, I'd like to dispel the most common misperception and misinformation about solar panels and how and they work. Solar panels don't supply power directly for the lights, chargers, and other outlets. The solar panel needs a battery, or a bank of batteries, to store their charge in. The batteries are what supplies charge for RangeRunner through a power inverter that converts the power from DC to AC. (DC is like that you'd find in your car's round outlet. AC is like that in a typical wall outlet.)
The more batteries you have, simply put, the longer you might be able to run your AC or chargers or fan. But, with more storage capacity comes the need for more energy that needs to be input. This is where having multiple solar panels becomes important. Of course, the Runaway Campers' small roof area limits the ability to place several solar PV cells. But, Runaway Campers don't have much in terms of electrical needs: dishwashers, refrigerators, etc. Therefore a battery and one cell should be more than enough to supply my electrical needs. Enough boring stuff, let's move on to the build!
First, I had to clear snow from the roof. I don't think there's a benefit to putting the panel on the front or rear of the trailer. Ideally, I'd like to be able to have them pivot on a rack to be pointed towards the sun, but that is a topic for later projects.
The Rogeny brand panels I bought come with mounting clips. These clips keep the panel about an inch from the roof of the RV. This is important for hot weather. An air gap helps dissipate heat which helps the panel operate more efficiently and also last longer. The panels are easy to attach and come with all the mounting hardware. Water is always an issue with RVs, so I used Flextape under the mount bracket as well as underneath where the bracket will sit. This serves two purposes: reduce the possibility of water entry and also provides some extra clearance for the mounting screws that came with the solar panels. The screws are slightly longer than the thickness of the wall and would penetrate into the trailer without so extra depth. The remedy this I used the tape in addition to washers to firmly hold the panel as well as keep the inside ceiling free of screw holes and protruding metals.
Once the tape was positioned properly and set, I made some pilot holes for the screws.
The panel is placed and screwed in firmly on the rear/driver's side of the RV. I chose the driver's side due to the flow of wires that need to be routed into the front of the trailer.
Currently my wires sit bare on the roof. The connectors are waterproof and seem to be very secure and not prone to coming unplugged easily. As such, I put a dab of silicon bulb grease that I got from O'Reilly's inside the connector. This should ensure the connectors remain waterproof. I didn't tackle this aspect of the install today due to the rapidly cooling afternoon, but I plan to route these wires through a conduit which will be mounted to the roof. As such, I will return to this portion at a later time. For now though, I have a lot of extra wire laid bare in front of the RV waiting to be cut short and secured.
The wires from the solar panel need to come into the trailer and be connected to a charge controller. The electrical box, if yours is the same as mine, should have a small tab that pulls out in the bottom. This makes it very convenient to route all four wires into the trailer.
Cable management is important! I drilled a total of four holes using a drill bit from outside the trailer and was careful not to nick the AC cable that was installed at the factory. I started from the outside since the outer surface is metal and takes a bit of finesse the keep the drill bit straight and true.
Two more holes drilled and the remaining two wires are routed though and plugged into the charge controller. It's very important to remember to install the battery cables first before installing the solar panel batteries. Renogy recommends this very strongly in their install instructions, though other manufacturers may differ. I'll clean up the wires and finish the wiring from the solar panel and also clean up the area where the wires enter through the electrical box outside.
That's it for this install. There's still more work to be done, but the cold weather got the best of me. I work a lot so hopefully next week I can finish up. Thanks for reading!
