For small, off-grid camping trips, you don't need much: A simple power pack or small solar panel can be more than enough! To calculate your maximum power output, start by making a list of all the devices you plan to use simultaneously during your camping trip.
Generally speaking, for solar the best ratio is to have enough storage to run on for a full 2 days with no sun, and enough solar wattage to recharge the entire battery bank to full once per day. If you follow this advice, it means you will be generating 2 times the amount of power that you need in one day. Why generate so much excess power?
For small, off-grid camping trips, you don't need much: A simple power pack or small solar panel can be more than enough! To calculate your maximum power output, start by making a list of all the devices you plan to use simultaneously during your camping trip.
For camping trips that exceed two or three days, bringing solar panels is often a good idea. This way, you can recharge your power station and extend its capacity, or even cover your entire power needs indefinitely as long as there is good weather! Solar panels offer several benefits for campers.
If you have a daily power usage of 400Wh, a week-long trip would need a power station with a capacity of at least 3000 Wh. But with a solar panel that can produce 300-500 Wh on a good day, a 1000 Wh power station should be sufficient as long as there is good weather!
Wh per day / # Daily sunlight hours = Wattage of panels needed. You use 258 Watts for 10 hours once per week, draining 2580 Wh of storage per week. 2580Wh / 7 days = 368 Wh per day. 368Wh / 5 Daily sunlight hours = 73.6 Watts of solar panels needed You use 258 Watts for 10 hours every day, which drains 2580 Wh of storage each day.
Daily sunlight hours: 5 (Google this, it depends where you live) 1449 Watts / 400 Watt solar panels = 3.62 solar panels (round up to 4 panels). IMPORTANT: If you don't use the RV every day you can get away with using fewer solar panels, because they will have more time to recharge the battery.