Quote:
Originally Posted by petefoss
I didn't realize the yield on solar was that bad. My RV draws about 1 kWhr/day at idle with the fridge on. As measured by a kill a watt meter.
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Excellent. It’s good to depend on measured data, and then confirm it’s in right ballpark just to make sure there wasn’t an error.
A picture of a new 31W shows the fridge energy consumption estimated at 387 kWh per year, or about 1.1 kWh per day (on average). If you tested energy consumption while on shore power or generator, that would be very close to rating. When running off inverter, you’d need to add at least another 10 to 15%.
Solar “yield” varies a lot depending on many things. If you’re in Arizona in summer, tilt panels towards sun, have good wiring, efficient controller, good batteries with low resistance, etc., you’d probably beat that number by a significant amount. However, for a yearly average, with panels flat on roof, and traveling throughout US, data suggest you shouldn’t count on much more than 3 times panel rating. The worse part is that some days you’ll get next to nothing, so you’ll need a backup just in case.
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