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  1. #1
    Seasoned Camper Calnca's Avatar
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    Bella Vista, AR
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    Solar Expectations?

    Picking up our new 376th on Saturday.

    5er is coming with a 170W solar panel.

    What can I expect from this panel? Trickle charging of the house batteries?

    Enough charging to actually be useful?

    Thanks in advance for the feedback!
    Cal, Marsha and Bear the Labradoodle
    2019 F350 Platinum DRW, 6.7 PSD, 4:10, Firestone Airbags
    Pullrite Superlite
    2019 Momentum 376th
    Aprilia RST1000
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  2. #2
    Site Team WhittleBurner's Avatar
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    Sitting in the sun! FL for along while
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    We have a 100 watt panel that works just fine for us. When boondocking we don't use a lot of 12 volt. We do all our cooking outside and pretty much spend all our time outside. When the weather doesn't cooperate we will stay inside and use more 12 volt but no TV or any other 12 volt hogs. That 100 watt will keep our battery charged just fine and we enjoy ourselves doing what we do.
    Last edited by WhittleBurner; 01-14-2019 at 07:44 PM.
    Marcy & Gary
    2014 Grand Design - Reflection 303RLS
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  3. #3
    Long Hauler DaveMatthewsBand's Avatar
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    Solar Expectations?

    Quote Originally Posted by Calnca View Post
    Picking up our new 376th on Saturday.

    5er is coming with a 170W solar panel.

    What can I expect from this panel? Trickle charging of the house batteries?

    Enough charging to actually be useful?

    Thanks in advance for the feedback!
    There’s no way for anyone of us to actually answer that question because it depends on how much electricity you use.

    Whittleburner is an example of a camper that barely uses any electricity. So his modest solar setup is adequate.

    On a cloudy rainy day, your 170 watt panel will barely put out 3 amps which is only enough to supply the vampiric devices in an RV and not really enough to keep the house battery topped off. 100 watts or less is basically a trickle charger.

    My wife and I on the other hand, are full time RV’ers and we use a LOT of electricity, daily. So we have 1200 watts of solar.

    You’ll need to determine how much electricity you’ll use daily and go from there.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by DaveMatthewsBand; 01-15-2019 at 12:06 PM.
    Resistance is Not Futile, It's Voltage Divided by Current.


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