Solar Power, Inverters, Battery

[cadmacdougall]

Hi All;

I am extremely new to how solar power works in our RV, so please understand that the questions I am about to ask may seem very basic, but I need some help.

We just got our new 5th wheel (Cougar 2023 320rds) a few weeks ago and are going over everything to make sure it all works. When we did the walkthrough at the dealership, they were not super helpful as to how the whole solar power/inverter thing worked and just said to read up on it, but we would be able to run everything (other than the air conditioners) if we were not hooked up to shore power. We have looked at the info that came with the RV, but not super helpful.

So to test things out we disconnected from shore power and the inverter switched to this mode. The plugins within the trailer that are labelled as an inverter plug all worked, but nothing else - control panel, fridge or lights. So we were thinking that perhaps something was not hooked up correctly? At this point we had to leave our RV, but will be back this weekend.

During the test above the battery switch was in the off position. I got to thinking after we left that perhaps the battery needs to be on for everything else to work? Would that mean that those items are not running off solar? Does solar charge the battery if it is being used to power the other items. I realize these may be silly questions, but I simply have no knowledge as to how the whole solar, inverter, battery power stuff works.

If someone would like to walk me through it - I would really appreciate it

[Canonman]

Yes, the battery cutoff switch needs to be in the on position to provide 12 volt power to the trailer from the batteries. Also, when you are connected to shore power, the battery charge current from your converter runs through the cutoff switch to charge your batteries in addition to your solar.