A lot of people want to know what kind of items you can run on an RV solar system. That is because solar systems are kind of foreign to the average user, in fact many people have never operated or been somewhere that they had to be responsible for the amount of power that they used. When you are running items on an RV solar system you are very in tune with how much power your batteries can hold and your solar panels can produce. This is a very different situation than being able to get limitless amounts of power from the power grid. However there are some real benefits of unplugging and going off-grid, for example, you can still run many of the items that you would like to wow having better views and fewer telephone poles to look at oh, my pet peeve. When you are trying to calculate the total load of items that you want to run it is important to know how long the item will run for and how many amps or Watts the item uses also it is important to know what voltage it will operate at. For example, an inverter would produce 120 volts for you to operate household loads, but these inverter loads will use more power from the no-load draw and also the inefficiency of power conversion. A 12-volt direct current load will always be more efficient because it does not have any no-load draws. Items like your water pump, fan, LED light, and 12-volt outlet all operate directly off your battery in your RV for the most part. Items like coffee pots microwaves and air conditioners operate at 120 volts. These may or may not be reasonable to power went off-grid on an inverter system.
Common items run in an RV on solar
Here are the components you need to build an RV solar system
Every solar system is built using the same basic components. From batteries to panels each piece has a place and a function in the system. The basic solar charging portion will work to keep the house batteries charges using only the power of the sun. The charged batteries can then be used to operate lights, water pumps, refrigerators and more. Below you will find a group of items that we find in RVs when the owner is boondocking. Each has its own electrical specifications and operational times. These will impact runtime and solar system design.
