This Solar-Powered RV Runs Without Fuel Or Charging Stations

There are lots of people out there who would like to tour the country in an RV but simply can't afford the fuel costs, and as the cost of gas continues to rise this dream of RVing the nation slips further away.

So the German RV company Dethleffs has come up with a great invention to make our RV dreams come true- a solar powered motorhome.

A post shared by stranddeko (@stranddeko) on Aug 29, 2017 at 9:37pm PDT

The "e.home" is covered in solar panels so it can soak up all the solar energy it needs to keep its 107-horsepower electric motor and all the components inside the RV running for as long as you need to make new memories on the road.

And just for fun Dethleffs even included a starlight projection system over the alcove bed, so you can space out in style before bed.

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Anybody who has built a solar powered RV will tell you that panels on the vehicle are a bad idea. If you need direct solar exposure, you can't go park in the shade of a tree. That means you're probably going to spend your entire power budget running the air conditioning, as RVs aren't insulated a fraction as well as homes, and certainly don't have a fraction the thermal mass to ride through the warmer parts of the day without active cooling. The better option is portable panels you can set up on the ground, several feet away from your camp site, so they can get full sun, while you stay in the shade.

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It says the panels can put out "up to 3,000 watts". That's about 4 horsepower, so far less than the 107 hp that that motor can draw. I think the only way to avoid charging stations (or charging at the camp site) is if you're willing to drive for only one day out of month. I think the Greenmatters site overhyped things. The Dethleffs site says "Wissend, dass der heutige Stand der Technik noch nicht den Anforderungen an einen Antrieb eines Reisemobils entspricht." - "Be aware that the current state of the art does not yet meet the requirements for a drive of a motorhome." It looks like the goal for them is to understand what is possible.

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