Using RV-Solar System to power House?

[eXodus]

I'm currently researching to put on my Motorhome
Further I'm interested in putting Solar on my house.

Now on average I use the RV 60-90 days out of the year and when I'm not at home - I don't need lots of power.

So would be a waste to have a nice system on the RV and only use it that little. Further the RV needs a substantial battery bank to run the A/C.
Why not combine everything?

Grid, Grid, Generator-> RV (All in one system(s) + batteries) - > house

Having a large transfer switch, the house runs on grid when I'm not there - and on the RV system when I'm there.
Could also add some solar panels on the roof where the RV is parked - with some quick disconnect to increase the available solar power.

Would also justify going crazy and all overboard with the RV system since it would have a return on investment - instead of only being a toy.

 

[JeepDaddy]

You can do that fairly easily with a grid-tie inverter. It may not run your house 100%, but you can use your RV solar to offset your home electricity use. 12 volt grid tie inverters are limited in power. 24 or 48 volt grid tie inverters are more common for higher power applications. grid tie inverters only work when there is grid power so you don't need a transfer switch.

 

[eXodus]

You can do that fairly easily with a grid-tie inverter. It may not run your house 100%, but you can use your RV solar to offset your home electricity use. 12 volt grid tie inverters are limited in power. 24 or 48 volt grid tie inverters are more common for higher power applications. grid tie inverters only work when there is grid power so you don't need a transfer switch.

Yeah, in that case I would build a 48V system in the RV.

The issue is with Grid Tie - permitting. I don't think that a back feed from an RV like this would win the approval of any inspector.
Further, I also would like to use the RV alone, so a pure grid tie inverter wouldn't help me there.

In essence - the RV would plug into an Grid Tied outlet and the House would plug into an Outlet of the RV.
I wouldn't even need a transfer switch - I could do that with heavy duty cables.

Get a 100A Outlet and Inlet installed where the RV hooks up.

The grid would never see any backfeed.

 

[JeepDaddy]

I don't think that a back feed from an RV like this would win the approval of any inspector.

I agree that would not be a good way to do it.

I was thinking along the lines of having the grid-tie inverter AC output tied into your circuit breaker panel of the house and running DC from your MH to the DC side of the inverter. Assuming of course that you park your MH close to your house.

 

[Scott SD]

I am trying to do something similar. I am in the process of having 24 panel home system installed which should be done in a month. I also have a travel trailer that will sit about 10’ from my house panel and I want to put about 800w of solar on it next year. There must be a way to connect the trailer solar to the house. The house will have enphase micro inverters and an enphase envoy combiner box. The trailer system design is still in process. No $$, but I like to plan. I just can’t see having 800w on my trailer next to the house and not using it. Maybe have the panels go through a switch to either feed the trailer or go through a micro inverter and tie into the combiner box.

 

[Substrate]

If those trailers are now more or less stationary a large amount of time, and the panels are mounted more or less horizontal, consider some way to tilt or angle them up - keeping a close eye on nearby shadowing from vent-pipes or other rooftop obstructions.

 

[eXodus]

If those trailers are now more or less stationary a large amount of time, and the panels are mounted more or less horizontal, consider some way to tilt or angle them up - keeping a close eye on nearby shadowing from vent-pipes or other rooftop obstructions.

That was my idea too. Plus I can add a 10-20kwh battery in the RV which I need for offgrid Camping - and it could also supply the house in case of an outage.

 

[TedH]

I'm currently researching to put on my Motorhome
Further I'm interested in putting Solar on my house.

Now on average I use the RV 60-90 days out of the year and when I'm not at home - I don't need lots of power.

So would be a waste to have a nice system on the RV and only use it that little. Further the RV needs a substantial battery bank to run the A/C.
Why not combine everything?

Grid, Grid, Generator-> RV (All in one system(s) + batteries) - > house

Having a large transfer switch, the house runs on grid when I'm not there - and on the RV system when I'm there.
Could also add some solar panels on the roof where the RV is parked - with some quick disconnect to increase the available solar power.

Would also justify going crazy and all overboard with the RV system since it would have a return on investment - instead of only being a toy.

I would consider adding battery backup behind an inverter/charger having built-in ATS. Have capacity to support two of the hot leads from GRID pass-thru. My house has 4 hot leads for 200amp service. I would add an inverter/charger with up to 30kw battery bank (a rack such as EG4). If power goes out, the ATS would flip to battery on those two legs. I would choose the legs that home AC, kitchen and water heater occupy. That would cover essentials and then I would have an outlet for lighting. I would then add dedicated solar to that backup 'generator' to recharge the battery bank.

 

[Scott SD]

An update after 2 years! This is a good thread. I just went back to read what I wrote back then. In my case, I am still planning to put solar on my RV and connect it to my house. Over the last 2 years I finished the 24 panel install with IQ micros, added 2 Powerwalls, and completed a DIY 8 panel expansion. Next is the trailer which will be easier than what I originally planned. Trailer will be 24v, I will make an external outlet and feed an extra IQ micro, which will kick on in the late afternoon when the sun is going down. Not a lot of power, but will provide a 295w constant through the night.

Any update from the original post?

 

[eXodus]

Any update from the original post?

I've built the Solar System on my RV and have been using it a lot. Got almost 1kWh of solar on the Roof and 10kWh of batteries.

Solar "Hump" for aerodynamics for Class A RV

I'm currently fitting large 435W on my RV. (82x 40 inches) My idea is to fit the long edge (82 inches) across the roof and create a kind of spoiler hump in the front of the RV. (Primary use - is to clear above the vent) This is recently done in Bus design and I saw it on some newer Class C...

diysolarforum.com

But then we had a major hurricane last year (Ian in Fort Myers) During the 3 weeks following the hurricane we evacuated first and then just lived out of the RV. There is really no point staying in the house when you don't have water and the 4ton A/C is too much draw on Solar.

After being hit the twice time in 5 years (Irma 2017) and two near misses (Michael and Nicole) I'm debating to move somewhere else and not adding solar to this home anymore. 8 months later the area still looks like a trash pile and seems to be getting worse instead of better. Sorry for the rant, just explaining why I never moved on the idea.

 

[daklein]

Two ideas I would consider (or have done) to accomplish using RV solar AC coupled back to a grid system.

1) Did this. Typical RV solar 2x 240w panels DC coupled to RV house battery (12v FLA) & inverter (2000w 120v) powering some AC loads in RV, for normal off-grid use. For grid-tie use: manual rotary transfer switch moves PV DC wires to inputs of microinverters mounted in camper. Added 50A 240v RV cord and breaker box, feeding old 30A 120v camper AC system from one leg. Enphase m210 microinverters 240v output wired to new 240v breaker panel. When RV is plugged into 50A 240V outlet, the microinverters will back-feed into house / grid system. When parked, leave RV 12v battery sitting full, not using or cycling the house battery.
This is relatively more complicated, but I didn't want to cycle the FLA battery, it would kill the battery. LFP was too expensive at that point for me. Sold the travel trailer a couple of years ago, and the buyer seemed interested in how the solar was set up, even though it was a bit complicated.

2) Saw pictures somewhere of this, and might be the better way to do it, if you have lithium batteries in the RV. Bigger typical RV solar system, with maybe 6-10 panels, DC coupled to an LFP battery bank and inverter for power loads in RV. For grid-tie use: From the battery bank, connect several microinverters DC input. If the battery is 36-48v DC, most microinverters will work directly from it. If the RV battery bank is 12-24v, then probably a DC:DC converter is required to bring the voltage up to the input voltage range of the microinverters. A simple voltage switch relay connects or disconnects the microinverters from the battery, based on battery voltage. Thinking about this now, you would want to have a precharge resistor, so that every time the micros are reconnected to the battery, it doesn't slam current into the microinverters input capacitors and kill the relay contacts. The precharge resistor could be permanently connected, maybe with a second lower voltage switch to disconnect if there are weeks of snow covered solar panels, to not drag the battery voltage down slowly until the battery bms hopefully disconnects....

If there has been enough sun to charge the LFP battery up, the microinverters will be enabled and will feed a constant ~200w depending on the capacity of the micro, per micro. A little box held the 12:48v DC:DC converter, two microinverters and the voltage control relay, with a cord connecting into a 240v circuit in the house, and short cord connecting to the RV battery.

I think I would do this second way next time.

 

[Lt.Dan]

I did this also. With both my big 5th wheel (The Meg in my description) and now my 24' Enclosed trailer. Both times I mounted a Growatt Grid Tie inverter next to my SolArk on the wall in the garage, then disconnected the PV that's on the RV roof from the RV's inverter, and ran a set of PV cables to the grid tie inverter.

This way I'm just connecting the RV PV to the grid tie inverter, and the grid tie inverter is going into the "Gen" port on my SolArk.

This can also be accomplished instead of using a grid tie inverter, you use a SCC to just charge your homes battery bank.