Here’s a helpful list of questions you can ask yourself to see if solar power is right for your situation:

What’s your budget for electricity?

Depending on what your budget is and how much electricity you plan on consuming you should weight the over all costs of going solar vs buying a generator. Going green and off the grid is great but for a lot of situations buying a generator and gas will be cheaper.Using a generator as an option could, in the long run be more expensive but for that you would have to take into account long term gas prices to run the generator.

What type of situations will you be living in?

Are you spending a lot of time remote camping?

You’ll have to determine what type of camping are you doing? If you’re going to be boondocking in the middle of nowhere a bunch having solar power can be quite helpful. Running a generator is great and will provide you with more power but then you have to think about noise & gas as well.

Are you a city dweller?

Running a generator in the city isn’t an option if you want to do some stealth camping. In this situation, you should look into building a solar system that will provide you with the power you need to get through the night.

Will you be spending most of your time at paid campgrounds or RV parks?

If you’re spending most of your time at paid campgrounds or RV parks, they generally have electrical hook ups so having a solar system probably isn’t necessary.

Are you staying in areas that you can’t run a generator?

If you are, solar is your only option.

Are you concerned about your carbon footprint?

Using a solar system can cut down on the amount of times you need to plug into the main electrical grid which, in the long run, will be better for the environment. It’s also a far healthier choice than using a gas run generator.

Do you want to run Air Conditioning?

This isn’t impossible but you’re going to have to spend a fortune in panels and batteries to handle the load an Air Conditioning unit will put on your battery bank. Most van’s and rv’s simply don’t have enough space for the amount of solar panels and batteries you’re going to need to keep your Air Conditioning alive. If you’re dead set on having Air Conditioning then you probably want to look into staying at places with dedicated electrical hook ups or you should buy a generator.

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