How To: Using Solar In Your Winnebago Revel
Summer is around the corner, Which means it’s time to plan your next RV trip. Where will you go? Maybe a national park or your local campground? Regardless of your destination, the one thing to be grateful for is your RVs solar system. While you are driving or resting, your solar panels are hard at work charging your batteries so you can freely use your RV whenever you want.
Today we are going to take a look at the Winnebago Revel and its Solar charging system. The more you know about your Winnebagos solar capabilities, the more you can benefit from them. If you happen to have an RV that is not fitted with solar, just give us a call or shoot us an email and we can help you figure out exactly what you need.
This Winnebago Revel comes standard with 2 125-amp-hour Lithium-ion batteries that are charged by 200 watts of solar panels on the roof. So how do solar panels work? let’s start by breaking down the components of the solar system and how they work. In this case with this system, you will have solar panels, a solar controller, and batteries to collect the charge.
If you take a close look at the panels you will see they are made up of small solar cells that convert the sunlight into energy. The solar panels convert the sun’s energy into Direct Current or DC and this charges your RV’s batteries.
Next you have the Solar controller, which is simply a device that gages the charge of your batteries and protects your batteries from being over charged by disconnecting the solar power feed to the batteries once it senses that they are fully charged.
Lastly, we have the batteries that store electricity as DC current. The batteries handle many tasks, such as keeping the lights on, running vent fans, and powering your USB ports. For bigger tasks like running your AC, or using bigger appliances, you will need to use shore power.
Now let’s take a closer look at the Solar Controller, as mentioned before this is designed to protect your batteries.
As you toggle through the first button that says “amp/volt” you will get to a screen that shows the Amps – this is going to tell you how many amps are currently coming on from our solar panels. This is a nice indicator of how your solar panels are doing and how much energy they are creating.
If you push it one more time the controller will show you the amp hours, this is used to show how much amperage a battery can provide for exactly one hour.
The next screen represents your Voltage, this shows how many volts your RV is currently using.
Underneath the screen, you will see these small indicator lights that show your current status and conditions. First, you have a power indicator showing you if the system is on or off. To the right of that you will see a thunderbolt, if that light is blue your solar panels are charging and the system is working.
Next to the indicators you have the battery condition lights, this essentially shows you the condition of your batteries. You have one for full, half charge, and low charge.
While Solar energy may not be an everyday use depending on where you are parked – it’s always a great feature to have on your RV! It can make boondocking a lot easier and provide free energy when needed.
If you have any questions about solar or would like to purchase additional upgrades, give us a call at 1-800-265-9019 or email Parts@colonialrv.com
