5 Ways To Get Electricity To Your RVs

By Dave | 21 June 2022 | 0 Comments

The outside of the RVs is the beautiful nature, and the inside is the home. People are more and more fond of this way of combining travel and life. While in our RV travel, one of the biggest topics we are highly concerned about is how to guarantee enough water and electricity. We can get water quickly and easily in highway rest areas, gas stations, campsites, etc., but we can’t get electricity like that. Charging takes a long time. So, in the article let’s talk about the 5 ways to get electricity to your RVs.

1. Shore Power

Most campgrounds you go to will have a 120-volt electrical outlet to plug into. It is called shore power. Depending on the type of RV you have, it will either be a 30 amp for smaller campers or a 50 amp system for the larger fifth wheels and motorhomes. An RV has a heavy-duty power cord that is normally about 25 feet long. When you're plugged into short power, it will supply power throughout your RV.

When you associate with shore power at an RV park, there will be an electrical switch on the platform. Make sure to turn that on after you connect to power, and turn it off when you detach to leave.

Pros: It can be charged as long as there is an outlet. After connecting, you can freely use high-power electrical appliances such as air conditioners.

Cons: RV travel is limited to charging piles and campsites. If you want to go dry camping or boondocking, there is no shore power for you.

2.12V DC Automotive System

Generally, RV has a 12V DC and 120 AC electrical system. And it has two kinds of batteries - engine battery and house battery. They are not in the same system. The house battery is a deep cycle battery, mainly used to store electrical power. Even the travel trailers have separate house batteries.

Every RV has at least one or two house batteries with 100 - 200Ah. Its state of discharge is around 65%.

The engine battery can charge your house battery when running your RV. You just need to add a battery isolator. Basically, it can be fully charged after driving for about 200 kilometers. After it is fully charged, it can be used for about 1-2 days in winter. If it is summer, it is not bad to use the air conditioner for one night.

Pros: convenient. It can generate electricity during driving.

Cons: It can only be charged when the vehicle is running. And the amount of power generation will be affected by factors such as the size of the engine, driving speed, and road conditions.

3. Gasoline or Propane Generator

The RV generator is a small motor that produces electricity when you put in some type of fuel, typically gasoline. There are more and more dual fuel options so they could run off gasoline or propane and sometimes diesel.

Most Class B and Class A motor coaches have built-in onboard generators. They will run on gas or diesel and draw their fuel from the RV’s gas tanks. You can turn it on to recharge the deep cycle batteries or when you need extra power the batteries can’t supply, like to run the air conditioner or microwave.

Some campers prefer using a gasoline or propane generator so they can go “off the grid”. This frees them up to go almost anywhere. Usually a 3KW generator is good enough.

Pros: it’s cheap and put out a lot of electricity.

Cons: it’s incredibly loud and the electricity may not be clean sine wave. And it may not be safe for your RV’s electronics.

4. Solar Panels

Solar is also used to charge battery banks and is good for small loads of electricity (lights, radios, etc). Solar will not handle the A/C unit or Microwave, water heaters.

There are two types of solar panels, roof-mounted panels, and portable solar panels. Usually, experienced RVers prefer two or more 100-watt panels mounted on the roof of their RVs and one or two 100-watt or higher portable solar panels.

Pros: it’s quiet and eco-friendly. It can work well under sunlight, especially on clear sunny days. The service life of the solar panel is long, after good maintenance.

Cons: the power generation is limited by the sunlight conditions. On a cloudy day, it has very low efficiency. It can’t work at night. Also, how many panels you can install depends on the roof area of your RVs.

5. Portable Power Station

Many people have portable power stations in their families. They use it as an emergency preparedness gear or garden power supply for their power tools. Actually, if you plan weekend travel or short a few days, you can also carry the portable power station.

It can be fully charged at home before you start your travel. Or you can connect it with your portable solar panels. On sunny daytime, the portable power station can store the solar power from the panels, then you can use it to run your appliances at night.

Pros: it’s also clean and eco-friendly. Easy to carry and use. The built-in inverter and charge controller makes you use AC and DC power with peace of mind.

Cons: it’s expensive and it may generate big noise at night.

Conclusion

These five ways of getting electricity in RV camping are not used separately. That depends on the different types of RVs and your travel conditions. If you’re going to a campsite with full hookups, you can connect the shore power directly. If you’re boondocking, and you don’t need a high amount of electricity, a 12 volt battery or two 6 volt golf cart batteries in series would be useful. If you boondock frequently, you can use solar panels or external generators to recharge your batteries.

A minimal investment in an external generator or 200–400 watts of solar panels can keep an RV off the grid for quite a while.

Your email address will not be published.Required fields are marked. *

POPULAR BLOG

XTARDIRECT