Be sure to check out what power you can get from the alternator as well. We put 800W on our roof (tilt-ready) based on our experience with the Sprinter in the past. Turns out we can get ~1500W from the alternator pretty easily with the dual-alternator setup. Pretty sure you could get that from the single as well (they're 250A each). So ~400-600W solar would have been fine for us - and use the alternator to back it up on non-sun days.
FWIW, our daily draw is similar to what you've projected (~1kWh) and we've seen multiple days with zero sun over the last few years - sometimes winter / ski and other times just rain / clouds in summer - and we learned that we wanted to have 4-5 days worth and to count on it being tested regularly. Right now, summertime, it's filled back up in a couple hours. In November in Yosemite valley... might as well be zero even without a storm.
We ran ~5kWh usable storage in the last rig (3 x 255Ah @ 12V AGM) and moved to ~8kWh of LiFePO4 (2 x 170A @ 24V) in this rig. Haven't regretted the additional space or cost. And have only drained half once or twice so far.
The schematics and such are fine - there's lots of options out there and it ends up being pretty simple once you get over the myriad connections. But that does take some time to get used to.
For simplicity and expediency sake, we wired up alternator charging for a friend's rig (Renogy 60A plus one 200A 12V LiFePO4 and an inverter) and he hasn't bothered with the solar panels yet. The controller is installed and he's got the panels but he's busy using the van and it's working great, so... 🤷♀️
It's not solar that matters, it's storage. And getting it back in there after you use it.
FWIW, our daily draw is similar to what you've projected (~1kWh) and we've seen multiple days with zero sun over the last few years - sometimes winter / ski and other times just rain / clouds in summer - and we learned that we wanted to have 4-5 days worth and to count on it being tested regularly. Right now, summertime, it's filled back up in a couple hours. In November in Yosemite valley... might as well be zero even without a storm.
We ran ~5kWh usable storage in the last rig (3 x 255Ah @ 12V AGM) and moved to ~8kWh of LiFePO4 (2 x 170A @ 24V) in this rig. Haven't regretted the additional space or cost. And have only drained half once or twice so far.
The schematics and such are fine - there's lots of options out there and it ends up being pretty simple once you get over the myriad connections. But that does take some time to get used to.
For simplicity and expediency sake, we wired up alternator charging for a friend's rig (Renogy 60A plus one 200A 12V LiFePO4 and an inverter) and he hasn't bothered with the solar panels yet. The controller is installed and he's got the panels but he's busy using the van and it's working great, so... 🤷♀️
It's not solar that matters, it's storage. And getting it back in there after you use it.
