Solar Panels

[tspang11]

Has anyone installed solar panels on their redwood?

[trfield58]

Todd,
We have a 2015 39MB and I installed 3 panels on the roof, with Trimetric battery monitor and solar charger, 3 12V AGM batteries all wired into magnum 2000 watt inverter


Tim

[Korey]

Originally Posted by trfield58

Todd,
We have a 2015 39MB and I installed 3 panels on the roof, with Trimetric battery monitor and solar charger, 3 12V AGM batteries all wired into magnum 2000 watt inverter


Tim

Do you think it's worth it?

[trfield58]

Well, monetarily, NO. It's very difficult to justify spending that kind of money if you don't spend a tremendous amount of time dry camping. In my case, I love having the ability to have power whenever/wherever we go. I got my batteries for free and I already had the Inverter so my "out of pocket" wasn't too bad. If I run the refrigerator and hot water heater on gas, pretty much everything else in the rig except air conditioning is run off of my solar. Another bonus is that my batteries are always fully charged if RV is sitting in storage. We store it in Myrtle Beach and when we come down to pick it up, fully charged and ready to go. We are headed back to NY tomorrow morning and will stop for the night in Virginia at a Walmart and have Satellite/TV, coffee maker, hair dryer, etc......

[UKDenboy]

I have not installed solar on Redwood yet (but soon we hope) but have on our current one. Now personally think it was worth the cost.We full time and use it every day, I run a Samsung fridge did run a Maytag washer in the midle of the day, quite pleased with the investment. I have 2off 220 watt 24v panels, Magnum MS 2000PSW TriStar TS-MPPT-60 and 4off 6GC batteries.And for the last 4 years has served us well.
Den.

[trfield58]

Don't get me wrong, to ME, it's worth it too but what I'm saying is that it's hard to justify if you don't use it a lot..... Let's put it this way, this is my second rig that I've installed solar. And, in your case, full timing and having the flexibility, that's a situation that makes it worth it. For those that do full time and are metered, it can really save money over time too. For example, I have most of my rig, except air and hot water wired into sub panel and connected to solar. If I full timed and was metered, I would turn off the breaker feed to the inverter and run circuits in sub panel (which is almost entire coach except Air, hot water) on solar and run air conditioning and hot water heater on shore power

[csg11]

Do we have them? Yes, 2 250 Watt panels with room for 2 more. We have 4 6v batteries, a Tristar 45 MPPT charge controller, Tristar Remote Meter, and Trimetric Monitor and a small (300 watt) PSW inverter. And we still have the 120 Watt Suitcase panels we started with in case we need more input or parked in a shady area. I used the portables for year and half. Got very tired of moving them and still not reaching full charge.

As to the second question are they worth it? Like the others have said it all depends on your lifestyle and use of your rig. It is absolutely worth it to us as we full time and spend a lot of time boondocking. Our generator only comes on now for a few minutes for her hairdryer/curling iron or she may want to use the microwave for a few minutes. It is music to my ears to hear that generator shut off. I am only sorry I did not do this much earlier. I have not run the numbers to cost justify as we were less interested in that than the other benefits. It was the freedom, flexibility and peacefulness that we are realizing that made it worth it to us.

I installed the solar myself, thus saving the labor. I also saved a little bit by shopping for components. Although there are "kits" out there, none were exactly what I wanted at the price level I wanted. In addition, I think I have a better understanding of my system than I would if someone else designed and installed it.

Hope this helps.

Gary

[spindrift]

Originally Posted by csg11

It was the freedom, flexibility and peacefulness that we are realizing that made it worth it to us.

Now that's PRICELESS.

[rex]

We have two 100 watt panels and room for two more. Ordered from Amazon:
200W Mono Starter Kit: 2pc 100W Solar Panels+20' Adapter Kit+PWM 30A Charge Controller+2 Sets Z Brackets+MC4 Branch Connectors Pair.
Already had a xantrex pure sine wave 2000 watt inverter from previous 5er as well four 6 volt Costco GC batteries. Wired inverter direct to coach and used the existing transfer switch with an added power inlet. I plug the inverter in to the inlet, power off the converter then power on the inverter. Sort of a cumbersome way to do it but it sure was easy to set up. We have gen prep so the tsf. switch was already installed. Also have two Honda 2000's we had with the previous 5er. Whole setup not to elegant but it works for us. Just have to remember to turn the inverter off, converter back on before using the gens. I use the same power inlet for those.