Don’t Make These 12 RV Solar Mistakes

[Shoaib]

September 15, 2023 at 1:09 pm

1. Buying RV solar panels you don’t need or won’t use
Buying solar you don’t need or won’t use is the most obvious error. If all you do is travel from RV park with hookups to RV park with hookups, you don’t need solar panels to recharge your batteries. Your batteries will recharge just as well and probably faster using the power at your destination.
If you occasionally spend the night without hookups during a quick stop on a longer journey, I would argue for more or larger batteries, not for solar panels.

When you start spending more than one day in a row camping at locations without electrical hookups, this argues for recharging your batteries with solar panels. Then the question becomes, how often do you camp this way? If only once or twice a summer, then a generator might be a better, less expensive answer. If you do get a generator, get a quiet one.

If your battery discharges overnight to a point of concern, you need a larger capacity battery or a lower draw from the battery. This does not argue for a solar panel to recharge your battery in the daytime.

Instead of RV solar or a generator, you could use your truck engine and alternator as a generator. Be careful here, small engine alternators are not designed to provide long-duration high amperage battery recharging. Be especially careful with this option with lithium batteries; they don’t resist the charge and can damage an alternator quickly.

2. Installing panels that are not exposed to full sun
Any little shade kills the energy production of the panel. It is better to have a poor orientation on the panels than it is to have shade on the panels. Depending on how your system is wired, shade on one panel can even kill the energy production of the adjoining panel.

Solar panels are designed to sit in the direct sun. When they are in the shade, they sometimes can produce only 10% of their potential energy.

3. Installing panels flat on your roof
If solar panels are installed flat to the roof, their operating temperature will increase, and as this happens the output of the panel will decrease. The effect isn’t quite the disaster that installing panels in the shade is, but they will not perform nearly as well without air circulation behind the panel.

4. Cheap RV solar panels
Solar panels should last 20 years. Some of the least expensive solar panels will only last a few years. Solar cells are extremely thin and since they are so thin, they do not tolerate vibration well.

Solar cells are about the same price regardless of where they are manufactured. Since the actual solar cells themselves are all about the same price, you have to ask yourself, “Why is this RV solar panel less expensive than a different panel?”

Did they cut corners on the aluminum frame, glass, or backing? Solar panels should be robust enough to keep vibrations to a minimum at the cell level. Cheap solar panels may cost more in the long run. I recommend higher quality RV solar panels with a good warranty by a company that has been doing it for a long time.