Caravan Power and Solar
the battery and solar your appliances need
Tick what you actually run and get the battery and solar that covers it.
Or enter the battery and solar a van already has, and get the nights it lasts.
What do you want to work out?
Sizing a setup from the appliances you run.
1. What you run in a day
The watts and hours are our assumptions, and they are all editable. The label on your own appliance is the accurate figure.
Adjust the watts and hours yourself
2. High-draw appliances
These change the answer completely, so they are kept separate.
3. How you camp
Nights between charges
Solar while you are camped
When you travel
Your answer
You use about
500 to 650Wh
a day, on the assumptions shown.
Why a range: a fridge cycles with the weather, so the answer is a band.
To go 2 nights you want roughly
1,150 to 1,550Wh
of rated capacity, which is about 100 to 130Ah at 12V nameplate.
The common size
1,000Wh to 1,500Wh. A fridge plus devices for a couple of days, and comfortably longer with a panel attached.
Solar to replace a day's use
150 to 200W
Assuming 5 peak sun hours a day and a 70% real-world derate for flat mounting, heat and controller losses.
A unit that covers that figure
The Elite 200 V2 from BLUETTI is rated 2,074Wh, which covers the 1,550Wh your own answer asks for. It weighs 24.2kg, and that comes out of your payload like anything else you load.
See the Elite 200 V2 at BLUETTI
We earn a commission if you buy through this BLUETTI link. The figure above comes from your own inputs and the assumptions at the foot of this page.
What this calculator does
An estimate, built from the assumptions on this page and your own inputs. It sizes a system; it does not certify one. Anything hardwired into a caravan is work for a licensed electrician, and anything involving gas is for a licensed gasfitter.
The reasoning behind every number here is in the portable power stations guide, including when a generator or more battery in the van is the better buy.
Caravans that already publish this much
Matched on published battery and solar figures at or above your answer. Lithium and AGM differ in how much of their nameplate you can actually use, so check which one a van has.
Jayco Australia
CrossTrak Hybrid Pop Top
520W solar, 300Ah battery
Price on application
Kedron Caravans
TE6 Topender
3000W solar, 1250Ah battery
Price on application
Supreme Caravans
Territory
630W solar, 300Ah battery
Price on application
Kedron Caravans
AT5 All Terrain
1200W solar, 400Ah battery
Price on application
Kedron Caravans
XR Cross Roads
800W solar, 400Ah battery
Price on application
Red Centre Caravans
Newell Plus
400W solar, 240Ah battery
Price on application
The assumptions we used
Every figure below is a rule of thumb rather than a specification. They are published here so you can check the answer against them.
- Usable capacity 85% for lithium. Covers recommended depth of discharge plus the losses in converting stored power to 240V. Typical manufacturer guidance; check your unit's manual.
- Usable capacity 45% for AGM and lead acid. Those batteries last longest when you use about half of what is on the label, and the conversion losses still come off the top of that.
- Fridge duty 33% to 50%. A compressor fridge cycles rather than running flat out. The band is where the range in your answer comes from.
- Peak sun 5 hours in the warmer months, 4 year-round. Deliberately conservative, so the figure holds up on an overcast day.
- Solar derate 70%. Flat roof mounting rather than sun-tracking, plus heat, dust, cable and controller losses. Panels rarely make their rated watts on a caravan.
- Amp-hours at 12V nominal. Caravans are 12V-native, and watt-hours are roughly amp-hours multiplied by volts.
- Above 2,500Wh a day we stop sizing. Past that, a portable unit is the wrong tool and a number here would mislead.
- Past 14 nights we stop counting. Weather, water and food run out before the battery does, so a bigger number would not tell you anything useful.
Whether your van can run a 240V appliance depends on its inverter, which this calculator does not know. Ask the dealer for the inverter rating in writing.