Installing camping solar panels depends on two factors: how much energy needs to be stored and how much energy is used in a day.

First, you need to know how much energy you use in a day. There are several ways to do this. The first involves mathematics. Estimate how much energy you will use while camping in your RV by knowing the consumption of each device or appliance you want to use and multiplying that by the number of hours you will use that device or appliance. Let's say you have a TV that consumes 90 watts. You estimate that you watch TV for about two hours a day. So 90W x 2h = 180W/ time per day. You use the same method to add up the number of hours a day for the appliances or equipment that are powered at camp, so you can estimate how many panels you'll need.

Calculate energy production and storage needs. A good assumption is that a 100W solar panel can produce 350Wh of electricity per day on average. However, this will vary greatly depending on place and time. You also need to know how many batteries you need to store this amount of electricity. Keep in mind that solar panels will only give you the prescribed number of watts in perfect conditions. Perfect conditions = Direct sunlight on the panel. On a rainy day, you won't get 100W from your 100W solar panel. If you park your car in the shade, you won't get 200W of energy from 200W solar panels.

You may have spent the whole day outside enjoying nature and only spent 15 minutes in bed watching TV. Tomorrow could be a rainy day, and you'll be staying in your RV, doing a lot of work on your laptop, and watching TV for hours at night. So the estimate of the number of solar panels that you put on your RV is usually a little bit higher. Or, you can install a power meter before installing solar panels, so that the data is more accurate.

How does photovoltaic energy work?

Photovoltaic technology, once only used on space stations and satellites, is gaining popularity and becoming a growing option. Every day, the sun releases a huge amount of energy that far exceeds the consumption of the human population on Earth. Since the sun is a sustainable and renewable source of electricity generation, this article aims to explain the basic concepts about this process and highlight important considerations when designing solar energy systems.