Van Life Solar Setup Cost

She has traveled through 48 us states and writes about van life camping and rv.

Van life solar setup cost.

Bridge the two batteries with the 4 gauge cable connect the negative terminal from battery a to the positive terminal on battery b. A decade ago a standard six kilowatt solar panel would cost nearly 53k more than the average rv. The goalzero yeti 400 and our 100w solar panel became the meat and bone of our van solar system. We re three weeks into our van life adventure and i thought it would be worth reviewing how we re getting along so far.

In this post i m going to discuss everything you need to consider in your van conversion solar setup also review the products we ve used in our van build. In the end we decided to take the easy way out and get ourselves a yeti 400 from goalzero. Easiest solar power setup for van living. Instal charge controller in a convenient place.

Build within your budget and save a little bit for emergencies. You might make twice as much as me or maybe you still owe 10 000 in student loans but you also might not need a solar power setup or swivel seats or new tires. Solar power refrigerators and self contained toilets are all comforts and may not be necessary to the lifestyle. They often come with their own charge controller and you can hook them into an existing solar set up.

When included with the rest of the electrical portion the solar panels electrical were the most expensive aspect of the van. Now that same solar panel costs under 19k and that s before a federal tax credit is applied. Overall the whole system cost about 2 000 but it s totally worth it to be off grid. Install the batteries in your van this is dependent on the type of van rv truck you have.

We bought our 1996 dodge ram van for 3 700 on craigslist and spent another 5 000 converting it with a queen sized bed fridge solar power and general repairs. In other words solar panel technology is advancing in much the way we ve seen computers tvs and phones advance in recent years. Six steps to set up solar. While solar generators do cost more than building a system on your own they are nearly impossible to mess up and are fully portable for camping and travel.

Cost of installing solar panels on your van. I just wanted to give an accurate depiction of my actual costs for getting started in van. This is pretty much the closest thing to a solar system plug n play out there.