Electrical Question

[pepemosre]

Hey Guys! I?m new to live in an RV, and I have a question about some electrical issue. Currently I have 2 outlets that work only if I plug the RV to a regular 120V hook-up. My question is , is there a way to make those outlets work with a solar panel? That way i wouldn't have to buy an additional battery.
I have a 2001 adventurer truck camper 
I?m travelling with my girlfriend from Canada to Chile
Good day to everyone!!

 

[darsben]

Well on battery you only have 12 volts so the plugs will not work unless you have an inverter to take the 12 volt to 120. That takes quite  bit of 12 volt power so it will run down the battery
What do you have that you need the 120 for?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

For practical purposes, a solar panel needs a battery as intermediate storage, to smooth out the peaks and valley of solar power and store excess power for later use.  The power from the panels is DC (Direct Current), not the AC (Alternating Current) the outlets are designed to provide, so the two are never connected together.

So, buy that second battery and let the solar store its energy there. Use an inverter to draw power from the batteries and "invert" it from DC to AC. Pluh whatever 120vac items you have right into the outlet(s) on the inverter. Caveat:  only low power devices unless you have a lot of battery capacity. It takes a 10+ battery amps to produce just 1 amp of 120vac power.


Something like this might do sufficient for you:

https://www.amazon.com/Ampeak-400W-Power-Inverter-Converter/dp/B0714B231X/

 

[ZinLuvR]

After you price solar panels, inverter and batteries you might want to consider a small generator.  Kind of depends on what you need the 120 volts for, how big is the load?  I have a monitor that lets me watch what my solar panels are doing during the day, it's interesting to watch the variance as the amount of sunshine changes. 

 

[grashley]

If you need these for USB converters to charge phones and tablets, you can add a USB outlet powered from the battery.