Adequate solar panel

I recently purchased a Coleman 100w solar panel from Costco to use on my 2008 1508T Hi-lo. The refrigerator, stove, and water heater all run on gas. The electrical system powers our water pump, refrigerator fan, lights, and our hydraulic system (I think that's all). The RV has two parallel 12V batteries.

We do most of our camping in sunny NM, AZ, or CO. Will this solar panel enable us to camp unhooked to AC beyond 3 days?

Thanks, Jerry

It should, if you're parked in full sun and are somewhat miserly with the electrical needs. I was able to stay off-grid with a 60 Watt system during one camping stay back before I installed my rooftop solar panels. But, I had replaced all the interior lights with LEDs and I replaced the OEM fan with a FanTastic Fan. Both of these use less current than the OEM stuff.

- Jack

Thanks. How can I find out how many amps are needed to use the equipment described?

If you find a label on anything that shows the Wattage needed, simply divide the Wattage by the battery voltage (assume the voltage is about 12.5V), that will give you the Amperage needed for the device.

For instance, 1156 incandescent bulbs were OEM installed in my trailer for interior lighting. I just looked them up on Amazon and they draw 26.9 Watts each. This means each bulb would have pulled 26.9/12.5 = 2.152 Amps. The current draw of one kind of LED replacement from SuperbrightLEDs is about 0.1944 Amps at the same voltage. So you could run about 11 of these LEDs on the same current as one incandescent.

I use 12.5V because you would not have an alternator charging your batteries and this value is a bit below the "resting voltage" of a disconnected lead-acid battery that is fully charged. The voltage will decrease during use and will be close to 12.0V by morning.

Most motors (fans, water pump, etc.) are rated in Watts. You would not be using the hydraulic pump once you are set up, and it takes very little current to lower the top.

- Jack

Thank you very much, Jack! This is very helpful!