feet
Click "Calculate Wire Gauge" after the system calculator has run.
Fuse/breaker recommendations appear after calculation.
Size your RV solar system in minutes. Whether you have a Class A motorhome, travel trailer, or fifth wheel — enter your appliances and get exact component recommendations.
Pre-loaded with typical RV appliances. Adjust wattage and hours to match your camping style.
Pick a preset to load typical appliances, or skip and add your own below.
The duty cycle accounts for appliances that don't run at full power continuously. A refrigerator compressor cycles on/off (~35% of the time); a lamp stays on 100%.
| Appliance | Peak Watts | Duty Cycle % | Hours/Day | Wh/Day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily Total: | 0 Wh | ||||
Most travel trailers have 80–160 sq ft of roof space, while Class A motorhomes can fit 200+ sq ft. That translates to 400–1200W of solar. Use rigid panels with Z-brackets or tilt mounts — the extra tilt can boost output by 15–25% in shoulder seasons when the sun is lower.
If you primarily boondock (dry camp), size your system for 2–3 days of autonomy to handle cloudy stretches. Weekend warriors who mostly use hookups can get away with a smaller system — even 200W of solar and a single 100Ah LiFePO4 battery handles lights, fridge, and charging.
Running rooftop AC from solar is possible but expensive. A 15,000 BTU AC draws 1,500–1,800W continuously. You'd need at least 800W of solar, a 3000W+ inverter, and 400Ah+ of LiFePO4 for a few hours of midday cooling. Many RVers skip solar AC and use generator or hookups for that.
A typical weekend RV setup runs on 100–200 W of solar and a single 100 Ah LiFePO4 battery. Full-time boondockers usually want 400–800 W of solar with 200–400 Ah of battery storage. Heavy users running residential fridges or wanting to power AC need 800–1,500 W of panels. The calculator above sizes everything based on your actual appliance list.
Weekend campers using LED lights, fridge, water pump, and phone charging do well with a single 100 Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery. Boondockers running a residential fridge and inverter for laptops/coffee maker need 200–300 Ah. Full-time RVers with AC, microwave, and induction cooktop typically install 400–600 Ah. Always size based on actual daily Wh usage, not gut feel.
Yes, but it requires significant capacity. A 15,000 BTU rooftop AC draws 1,500–1,800 W continuously. You need at least 800 W of solar, a 3,000 W+ pure-sine inverter, and 400 Ah of LiFePO4 to run AC for 3–4 hours mid-day. Most RVers compromise: solar handles everything else and the generator or shore power runs the AC.
Rigid panels with tilt mounts last longer (25+ years), produce more power per dollar, and run cooler thanks to the airgap below. Flexible panels are great for curved or weight-sensitive surfaces but typically degrade in 5–7 years from heat damage. For most RVs with flat roof sections, rigid panels with Z-brackets are the better long-term choice.
For any system over 200 W, yes — MPPT extracts 20–30% more energy than PWM and lets you wire panels in series at higher voltage, which means thinner wire runs from roof to controller. For very small systems (under 100 W) PWM is OK if your panel voltage matches battery voltage (12V nominal panel for 12V battery).
Divide usable battery capacity (Wh) by your daily usage. A 100 Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery has ~1,000 usable Wh. If you use 800 Wh/day with no solar input, that’s about 1.25 days. With 200 W of solar producing ~700 Wh/day average, the same setup can run indefinitely as long as you have sun.