Runaway Parents install a staggering 1,600 watts of solar on their Lance Camper roof with another 400 watts of portable panels at the ready. Want to run your AC off-grid? Check out this set-up!
The ability to run an RV air conditioner off-grid utilizing a large lithium battery bank and 110-volt inverter has captured the imaginations of many truck campers.
We, too have been swept up by this concept, bringing the concept to fruition in our camper first with a Bluetti AC200P portable lithium power station (166Ah), and later with a Goal Zero Escape Ecosystem (630Ah). Can you really run an air conditioner off-grid using a large lithium battery bank and a 110-volt inverter? Absolutely, yes!
The challenges with powering an air conditioner off-grid are limited AC run time and recharging a subsequently depleted battery. In approximately two hours with the Bluetti AC200P, and seven and a half hours with the Goal Zero Escape System, the respective lithium battery banks would be at 10 percent charge, or lower.
This makes sense in some scenarios. For example, to cool the camper down off-grid for a few hours, knowing that you’ll be plugged into shore power that evening. Or, to cool the camper down in the late afternoon, knowing that you’ll be able to recharge the battery bank with solar the next morning.
But what about running your air conditioning off-grid all day, day after day—in the heat of summer? From our experience, that would mean a maximized setup far beyond what we’ve been able to test. Specifically, you would need a much more efficient air conditioner than our admittedly old-school Coleman Mach 8, and a much larger solar panel array than our measly 490-watt panel array.
In theory, we would be able to greatly increase our AC run time by changing to the most efficient RV roof air conditioners on the market. For example, the 12-volt version of the Nomadic X2 runs at 504 watts on ECO Mode, and 636 watts on Max Mode.
We could compound that run time again by greatly increasing the size of our solar panel array. Ideally, we would have double the solar panel wattage of what the Nomadic X2 (or similarly efficient roof air conditioner) requires. The problem is real estate. With an air conditioner and vents, there’s not enough room on a typical camper to have more than four 200-watt panels.
If only we could cover our entire roof with solar panels…
Enter Mike and Twylla of Runaway Parents. These two posted a video tour of their substantially rebuilt Lance truck camper. What caught our attention—starting at 5:16 in the video—was their stunning 1,600-watt roof-mounted solar panel array.
Beyond the enormous wattage, the solar panels are mounted to a tilting aluminum frame that physically hovers above all of the standard rooftop features—vents, skylights, antennas, roof racks, and the air conditioner. This means they can keep all of the functionality a camper roof can provide, with the kind of solar power few of us have dared imagine.
To kick this set-up up a notch, Mike has installed electric actuators that lift and hold the panels toward the sun. This not only increases the power that this massive array can gather, but also creates access to the roof for inspections and seal maintenance.
In addition, they have a 400-watt portable solar panel kit with its own MPPT controller. This takes their total solar power to a whopping 2,000 watts.
On a sunny day, that should mean they’re pushing at least 1,000 watts of solar into their battery bank—darn near enough to keep up with even our vintage Coleman Mach 8 air conditioner. It’s no wonder that they removed their propane generator.
I was already formulating this article when Mike opened the door to his Lance Camper to reveal an elaborate Victron system on full display under his dinette sofa.
This is the kind of installation and display one expects to see at SEMA. The Victron components are perfectly aligned, carefully arranged, and neatly behind plexiglass. Honestly, I don’t think we’ve seen anything quite like this in a truck camper before. It’s a knockout.
The Victron components include a Victron MultiPlus-II, two Victron MPPT solar controllers (one spec’d for the 1,600-watt roof-mounted array, the other for the 400-watt portable panels), two Victron Orion-Tr Smart components (to change voltages), and a Victron Lynx distributor.
On paper and in the video, this has to be one of the more impressive electrical systems ever retrofitted into a camper.
The battery system is another surprise with three EG4 LL server rack batteries. As the name implies, these are LiFePo4 lithium batteries designed to be installed in a server rack.
This type of battery is beyond our scope of experience and not something we would necessarily recommend. In fact, we would caution anyone from building a custom electrical system like the one Runaway Parents have assembled unless you know what you’re doing. This is not for everybody.
If off-grid air conditioning is going to go mainstream, we are going to have to see some breakthroughs in solar panel and air conditioning efficiency. Or, we are going to have to see set-ups like the Runaway Parents that float massive panel arrays above our campers with supplemental portable panels at the ready.
The really good news here is that this installation showcases how it is more than possible, and with the technology available now.
Nice work, Mike and Twylla! We’re inspired!
For more of their videos, check out Runaway Parents on YouTube.
