Overview of Services

A: Look, portable systems have their pros. They’re easy to use, they power the basics, and they don’t make your brain hurt. But if you’ve ever used these products, you know it just doesn’t cut it for long-term travelling. Setting up and tearing down 4+ portable panels (even in the rain) just to charge your power station from zero? Spending $1600 for a 200ah power station that can’t handle motorized A/C loads? Please guys, solar does not have to be this hard! Let’s look at the benefits to a permanently-mounted system. 200ah of battery plus a 1000W inverter, MPPT and wiring? Forget $1600, lets try $800. I’m not kidding! - you can half the price of a larger movable system by just sourcing independent parts and mounting them permanently. Plus, now you can charge your batteries while driving, your panels will last 25 years instead of 2-5, and the most you have to do is wipe off your solar panels and maybe tighten a few bolts every year. And let’s not forget about scalability or resale value of your rig either. So if it can be done, its almost always worth it! Got some deeper questions on permanent systems? Check out the FAQs by clicking the button below.

A: No worries, just carry a single fold-up panel, and you can plug it in to get the best of both worlds.

A: Because its a real, but curable curse. Rigid panels primarily fail mobile users for two reasons. The solar panel wasn’t mounted securely enough for rough terrain, or the frame itself wasn’t strong enough out of the factory. Our fix? Solar Armor™, used to fortify those panel frames before using one of our rugged mounting methods.

A: portable power stations are convenient, but that doesn’t mean permanent batteries can’t be. A properly designed solar electrical system will keep your batteries charged in most conditions, even while driving! However, sometimes the batteries need a bit more juice than solar can provide in a shaded or cloudy environment.

With an AC-DC battery charger and an extension cord, you can charge your batteries with any 120V plug! You can use your home’s exterior outlets, a campsite electric hookup, or even the plug built into your truck bed! Just make sure the outlet can handle the wattage rating of your charger.

Additionally, DC-DC chargers enable you to charge your batteries while driving via your vehicle’s alternator, so you always arrive at camp topped up and ready to roll. Just make sure you don’t turn your car on only to let it idle for hours on end while your batteries charge - your alternator needs airflow to cool down under load!

This is a very important question - and the answer is almost always no! Sending power back into the electrical grid is not as easy as plugging into a household outlet. In fact, if you do this with a typical RV inverter, its a huge fire and shock hazard! Your inverter will blow up, you may kill your batteries and solar panels, you’ll likely start a fire, and you’ll be lucky if you yourself don’t get hurt.

Why does this happen? When it comes to AC power, things are not constant. The voltage of a 120V plug actually cycles between positive and negative voltages (often called peak-to-peak voltage). And this happens very rapidly - 60 times a second, even. The thing is, if an inverter’s output is not synced up in time with the electrical grid’s voltage, you can get up to a 240V difference between the two components - causing massive damaging currents to flow in an instant.

How is this problem solved? Thanks to power electronics built into grid-tied inverters, these inverters can read the power grid’s current state and match their output voltage to it without issue. This is referred to as anti-islanding, and is very important for microgrids that may connect or disconnect from the main power grid at will. However, these electronics are not built into every inverter, mainly because of price and complexity. As a result, 99% of RV inverters are considered off-grid inverters. Therefore, if you have a typical RV inverter, you should never try to connect it directly to the power grid to sell excess energy.

Let’s say you did have such a capable inverter though. Does this mean you can sell power back to the grid now? The answer is still typically no! The power grid does not accept solar power from just any location. The operators need to first verify that connecting the desired amount of solar power won’t cause overvoltage issues to the grid itself. This can be a complicated issue and takes months of planning, even for a small 10KW residential solar array. When you add in the complexities of an RV essentially acting as a mobile microgrid, on top of RV Parks lacking infrastructure for such connections, it just becomes unrealistic to connect RV solar to the grid to sell off extra power.

So what’s the only realistic way to make this work? You would need an anti-islanding inverter, a permanent structure on your own private property already authorized to connect solar power to the grid, and an RV that is rarely if ever going to be disconnected from the grid for recreational use. In other words - you need a permanent residential solar system!

A: We only offer the best of the best to guarantee safety and quality. If its not safe or reliable, we’re not gonna use it. Zinc hardware, cheap zipties, and non-marine grade wire degrade rapidly when exposed to the elements. Even when used inside, zinc hardware will begin to rust from condensation, and cheap wire insulation will crack or fail, especially if exposed to UV rays for lengthy periods. Marine-grade tinned copper resists degradation well without increasing impedance, and UV-rated solar wire is a must for panel wiring. Wago connectors are convenient, but a solid crimp with solder and heat shrink is always more reliable, especially in high-ampacity settings. Lead-Acid batteries can spill, and their fumes require constant ventilation for safety. LiFePO4 (Lithium-Iron-Phosphate) battery chemistries do cost more, but they don’t require any ventilation, they don’t spill, and they are safer and more stable than the Lithium-Polymer alternatives they use in electronics and even Teslas. We know what fails, but if you have specific material questions, let us know! We’ll let you know our thoughts.