Our Newmar dealer offered an attractively price solar kit upon purchase, and we took them up on the deal without doing any research. That has turned into a bit of mistake due to lack of upgradability. I wish I had read these articles by the Wynns on powering a motohome via solar power.
Here is what the dealer installed:
We now have 320 watts of power, which is not sufficient to power a residential refrigerator, let alone everything else we use. I would ideally like to be in 800-1000 watt range. However there are three issues that hamper upgrading to a larger system (all of which admittedly can be overcome with money):
- Newmar only used a 12 gauge wire for the solar prep, which I’ve been told has too much thermal loss to handle a ~1kW system. I have no idea the level of effort required to upgrade to thicker diameter wire. Note that for 2017 models Newmar has upgraded the solar prep wire to 6 gauge.
- The currently installed solar control/display module is only 30 amps and would need to be replaced with a 80 amp unit, in addition to a remote display.
- The existing 2 solar panels were installed almost randomly on the roof, with no thought towards future expansion. There is maybe room for 1 more panel. With proper planning 6 panels would have fit.
