Thor Forums

[Chance]

Originally Posted by Bob Denman

Chance,
Question: If (A very big "If"...) you have a 350 watt system on your roof, and it's getting 8 hours of Sun daily...
Assuming at least average efficiency: how can you figure the Amp-Hours that'll it'll put back into your batteries?

A very rough average for typical solar production is 3 times the panel’s rating. Therefore, 350 Watts of nominal capacity should yield around 1,000 Watt-hours of energy. If you have a 12-Volt system (and most RVs do), then it’s about 85 Amp-hours into batteries.

Again, very average because in winter, or rainy day, etc., you could get much less, and if in summer in the desert, you could easily exceed 100 Ah on a good day.

One disadvantage of solar for my type of use is that I can’t count on it to meet my needs all the time, and if I need a backup charging system anyway, then why bother? I have mixed feelings about solar in my future because the more energy I need, the less appealing it becomes.