How to Connect RV Solar Panels
The electricity to run everything in your RV has to come from somewhere. Many people power their RV with a lead-acid battery in the engine, a generator or both. Those options depend on fossil fuels, which can get very expensive, and are neither green nor renewable. Connecting solar panels to the RV can power much what you need, if not all of it, and it does so without wasting gasoline to keep the battery charged.
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Things You'll Need
- Cardboard
- RV solar panel and mounting equipment
- Regulator
- Battery connector cables
Instructions
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1
Calculate how many watts of power you need for your solar array. Add the amount of amps each appliance uses together, and multiply the result by the number of days each week you use your RV. Knowing your typical weekly power usage helps you to figure out how many solar panels you need.
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2
Disconnect your RV power sources. Disconnect the starter battery and the battery banks. Unplug the shore power cord and keep the generator off. Place cardboard over the solar panel cells to keep it from creating a current.
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3
Mount a solar panel on the roof of your RV. Orient it so the width side faces the front, rather than the long side, to keep the wind resistance down. Most RV solar panels have four mounting screws that you screw through the roof. You might need to seal them.
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4
Run the solar panel wires down the refrigerator vent from the roof into the RV's interior. This keeps you from having to drill and seal another hole in the roof. The wires come out in the space above the refrigerator.
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5
Go inside the RV. Cut a hole in a panel above the refrigerator the same size as the regulator and pull the wires from the solar panel through the hole. Attach them to the regulator as they are marked.
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6
Run battery connector cables from the marked connections on the regulator to the batteries in the deep cycle battery bank in your RV. You can probably use the same route that your refrigerator does. Remember that your positive connections are black and the negative or grounds are white.
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7
Slide the regulator into the hole over the refrigerator and mount it with any included screws so it does not fall out of the hole. Go back outside and remove the cardboard from the solar panel on the roof and reconnect your starter battery, battery bank and shore power cord.
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Tips & Warnings
Many solar panels allow you to connect multiple panels to the same system, usually through a daisy chain system connecting each panel to those directly next to it.
