solar panel and charge controller combo

[Jeff Hammer]

My wife and I have a 19 foot KZ Sportsman's Classic. When we camp we are usually gone from our campsite much of the day and we want to keep the  battery charged without using our generator. We are contemplating buying a solar panel and using that. I know next to nothing about solar panels but I see other campers using them constantly, so my feeling is they must work. I have been researching online and found the combination solar panel and charge controller combo in the link below and would like to know if this combination is all I need. I apologize if this topic has been hashed out before but could not find any thread relating to it. Please advise. Thanks in advance for your knowledge.

https://www.amazon.com/spark/ref=nav_upnav_merged_T1_Detail

Jeff

 

[kportra]

I couldn't get your link to work.  We have a 100 W Renogy Suitcase Solar.  It came with the charge controller.  If you don't want a permanently mounted panel, we would recommend this one.  There are cheaper ones available, but this one is very well built and does the trick for us.  We have never had anything stolen from our campsite and we don't secure this.  We move it close to the trailer and cover with a tarp at night in case it rains.  We move it occassionally throughout the day if we're around to pick up the best sun.  Hubby has a CPAP, so we use a lot more energy than many campers and on a good day this will top our batteries off without needing the generator.

 

[Kevin Means]

Hi Jeff. Welcome to the RVForum. Unless you're running high consumption appliances all the time (microwave with inverter, furnace etc.) a 100 watt panel like kportra mentioned should work well for you (On a sunny day, if the panels aren't shaded.) It's usually a good idea to know your daily power consumption, battery capacity and goals before buying solar panels, but a 19 foot RV isn't likely to have a lot of consumption.

If you want to dive a little deeper into this solar stuff, there's a child board for solar topics on this Forum. Best to post solar related questions there. More solar knowledgeable people will see your questions.

Kev