Before determining how many solar panels you need, you’ll first have to estimate how much daily energy you typically use.
To get an estimate, you can add up the daily power consumption of your RV’s major appliances. Make a list of all the electronics in your RV. Then, label each with their indicated wattage. Many common appliances, like refrigerators and televisions, are stamped with their wattage on their back panels.
If a device isn’t labeled, you can search its model online to find it. You can also search the web for a common wattage of that particular appliance, or refer to the common wattages list provided by EcoFlow. Some devices indicate their voltage and amperage instead, but you can simply multiply the two to get the wattage.
Once you have a list of your appliances and their wattages, estimate how many hours per day you use each. Then, multiply each appliance’s wattage by the hours per day you use it, and add everything up. This will provide your total Watt-hours per day you need.
For example, let’s say you have a 100W television running 2 hours per day, a 60W refrigerator running 24 hours per day, and a 400W space heater running for 1 hour per day. To find the total, multiply each device’s wattage by its daily usage and add everything up.
- (100W television) x (2hr/day) = 200Wh/day
- (60W refrigerator) x (24hr/day) = 1,440Wh/day
- (400W space heater) x (1hr/day) = 800Wh/day
- Total Wh/day = (200Wh/day) + (1,040Wh/day) + (800Wh/day) = 2,040Wh/day
This is an example, so you’ll likely have more appliances to include. Whatever number you come up with, write it down to keep it on hand for the next steps.
