What Can 200 Watts Solar Do, RV

WOW! I have been watching endless solar how to videos. It all left me more confused than more educated. THIS VIDEO was exactly what I needed! Was going to take the plunge and order a portable solar generator this week and I can not THANK YOU enough. You saved me a TON of hassle and confusion!! I just purchased a small mini fridge similar to yours for an emergency and had NO odea what I would need to run it!!!! THANK YOU

Thank You this is clear talking not that technical shit,.! i,m also taking a 200w but have one accu off 140amps. no micrro ore curling iron hahaha love it thanks dude,.!

How many AH cowboy? Nah it all good i will find it 😉

Nice i installed a solar panel on my van.
Now i am stuck for the next part 😁
Maybe you can make a fast video?

I have a startbattery to start my van.
A secondary battery 200ah to provide the back compartiment of electricity.
This 200ah i have connected to my 100w solar panel.

Now my question.
How can i connect the start batterij to my solar panel so it does stay full all the time but does not take power from the 200ah battery.

If you cannot help me reply also so i can keep searching 😁

Thank-you for the frank talk. I'm looking to make more of my budget about the battery bank now and settle on a 200 W system.

Depends weather your a farm boy or a bloody tawny waster .

my campers 8ft and i managed 400W of solar on top. also 500AH worth of batteries. it was a bit more important to me seeing im full time. just a bonus, i got a 3.5CF deep freeze crammed in here too.

I have the same 200 Watt, 2 marine battery set up as Dave. But he makes no mention of his converter (DC to AC) and its wattage. Can anyone please tell me what wattage (1000? 2000? 3000?) is required of a converter to power a mini-fridge, one even smaller than Dave's. Thank you!

"It's really the battery bank that limits the use of the system." Try a "Solar Generator" battery unit. A lot of them now do some sort of "energy hoisting," where they channel their power into a stronger shape, re resistive loads, which are a lot of the loads you'll use: coffee maker, refrigerator, (space heater?). You'd have to activate the energy "lifting" option, but it would make many more appliances able to run. It would of course take longer to charge back to level, but the option might work for what you want.

It was really helpful, and I really appreciate the time and effort you took to make it, thank you!

Very helpful! Thanks for the information!

You are only getting but half the amps you would with a LifePo4, yours didn't list Amp Hour rating, just cranking amps

your system could support 1000 to 1500 watt invertor too

Appreciate this "good ole boy" straight forward approach. Good info without the BS. Thank you for the effort sir. 👍

thanks Dave

I know the video is a couple years old. You made many claims without stating what size and type inverter you have.

One huge trick is to get a portable 20000+ mah battery bank. That'll provide enough power to charge a couple of phones and a tablet. Make sure all rechargeable devices are fully charged with solar.

Walmart has small personal fans about 4 inch by 4 inch. They are USB rechargeable and can run about 8-10 hours at high speed.

Many people have cordless tools. I personally use kobalt tools and have 3 flashlights that use 24v batteries. Use flashlights instead of the RV lights (which should be upgraded to LED). Kobalt has an USB adapter for their batteries (2 low power USB outlets). I use this to recharge various USB devices. They offer a portable fan. If you have 40v or 80v batteries they offer a 300w inverter.

If you have a good 2000w inverter you can use a small microwave or hair dryer on low. Yes they drain the batteries quickly but you only use them for a few minutes.

I have a portable clothes washer that uses 200w (wash) to 300w (spin). You only need about 6 minutes wash cycle, 3 minutes rinse and 1 minute spin for a small load of clothes.

What this means is upgrading from 200w solar to 400w or 600w is huge; assuming you do laundry, and other heavy loads during the day. It means that you can use the batteries during the day, as long as you finish the high load activities with enough time to recharge the batteries.

I think this guy watches to much TV:p But makes some good points about smaller solar systems. Keep a good reserve on your batteries, being conservative with them. Batteries can be one of the most expensive components. Also if you don't need ac power all the while turn your inverter off it consumes a tiny bit of power.

You will get 100 watts for 8 hours a day. Bring a flashlight

Go to Mppt controller and 100ah lithium battery ! Twice the storage ! Mppt gives you a little moreimput ! I have a 2,000 watt inverter and Boom lots of power !

I just picked up a small travel trailer, a Jayflight SLX 195RBW (Baja). I added 400w solar panels and 200Ah of lithium batteries. Also added a 3000w inverter. The fridge is an 8cf 12v unit. I won’t run the air conditioner when boondocking, but I might run it fan only. I set the inverter up so I actually have to plug it in to the shore power inlet, seemed an easier installation. 115v to 30a block, short heavy duty extension cord from inverter to the converter block, then the standard 30a dogbone to the trailer. At home, I can connect to an outside outlet, it becomes a guest room if needed. Dry camping - judicious use of the microwave should be okay. My coffee maker is non-electric, stovetop drip, looks just like an electric.

Thanks...

pay the 85 for the third battery and live your life. lol all the timing of stuff would drive me crazy. i dont want to think about the solar.

That’s nothing , unless you just want to charge a phone only.

Very good video learned a lot thank you

You would have so much better performance with just one single 100 amp lithium over those to huge heavy lead acid batterys
.Now you can get one 100 amp lithium battery for about 300 bucks. Plus just one 100 amp lithium you can run a microwave a hard dryer and it charges so much faster and has a much better constant voltage. Lead acids battery's the voltage drops real quick

THANK YOU SIR!!

👍 very Informative and straightforward, I'm a month into my Tramper ctc build and getting into the solar part now.

Thank you for keeping it simple and the easy to understand explanation.

I just finished restifying a 1973 Holiday Camper trailer. It is 7x15, and all I need is power to run a fridge the same size as in this video. I figured a 200 watt system would be sufficient. I was looking at a Renogy or Eco-Worthy kit from Amazon Canada, preferably with a 50 Ah battery. I also have a generator handy in case of emergencies.

Thank you! Helps a lot

You use an AC refrigerator and inverters in your RV while boondocking? I am curious how long a standard dometic propane/DC RV fridge, DC LED lights, and water pump, and the propane/DC heater would last.

I worked for a carnival for 2 years, lived in a small camper, most of the time i only had a 10 inch tablet, my phone and a couple of 7x power banks for charging phones , which i kept on charger as I worked the food wagon during day. The owner was to cheap to get electric for the camper. But i got by just fine , it was fun traveling around city after city, beside sleeping it was fun exploring other cities so living was different than, say in a house , just needed sleep . This two battery and 200 w solar will operate a coffee maker just fine, the rest of my day I was working or seeing the city. So my sparse power with a tablet for my movies was perfect.

I also got several usb fans , which getting usb devices will greatly improve solar efficiency

I agree. I have a shed to cabin which i have wired up and set up like a rv, I use two 100 w and two Rv deep cycle batteries. I use a high efficiency car refrigerator, but generally use fresh food so I cut down how much i need refrigerator. Like bottle water and beverages, i dont fridge , i will milk or meats i get for dinner , have a whole system i do to keep my power draw down. So, using the fridge lightly , Ill turn off or unplug when not using, this increases enormously my other power use time, i use several 5w usb hanging light bulbs and set up my light system, using high efficiency led , adopted a rule of turning off lights i dont need. One bad habit that I wont change is , and because i cant sleep if it goes off, is having movies i like playing in bed, so with my laptop with hundreds of mp4 movies and my 32 smart TV and my phone as hotspot, I can fall asleep with movies playing and still have power to go. I have two more 100 panels im going to install for expanded....but the two have been just fine.

You might benefit from getting Lithium iron phosphate batteries if you wanted to power other types of devices..........sealed lead acid batteries are limited in what you can power.

What power inverter are you using?

I hope by now you have discovered the joy of a 12v fridge or cooler.

I enjoyed this and learned a lot. Thank you!

The 10 o clock generator guy! 🤣 this is why I dont go to camp grounds. I was at a camp ground in New Mexico heard the generator go on at around 9 o'clock. Look over at the RV and the dudes watching a big screen tv. What in the hell?

I'd like to have a beer with this guy

Thank you so much for a video I can actually understand! A question: how many amps are the batteries you're using?

Good Job Man.... ;0)

hi from Mexico. Informative video. Thanks

There's an individual named Steven Harris who wrote a book called Sunshine two dollars. He made a nice system using a small refrigerator like yours of course he ripped it all apart yada yada. Long story short he took the condenser coil and stuck it in water so it helped cooling a gas back down from the compressor which increases deficiency tremendously. You can also line the outside of the refrigerator with isocyanate board AKA blue board pink board insulation comes in different thicknesses with I believe the match thickness of two inches. This will allow you to run other things. Keep up the good work

Very informative and makes sense....

I run 2 fridges the same as yours, and a freezer of 200w during the sun shine time. My battery is a 24v 50ah Lifepo4. This is in a house in South Africa where we have a lot of power outages. At night it is tough luck as the battery is too small.

I have a question I have a atem solar panel 200 watts portable the foldable one how do I pass power to my rv?? I have the control and I bought a huge battery 90 amps do I need a power station or a inverter to pass power to my rv??? Please help me it's an emergency

What size is your inverter? If I understand it correctly the bigger inverters run batteries down faster?

Save money with a third battery so you don't have to run your generator at night

Ty sir