How Many Amps Does a 250-watt Solar Panel Produce? (Explained)

Have you ever wondered how many amps does a 250 watt solar panel produce?

This is a pretty tricky question to answer. This is because there are a lot of different things that can influence how many amps a 250-watt solar panel can produce. However, we are going to try and give you a rough estimate on this page!

So, how many amps does a 250 watt solar panel produce? On average a 250 watt solar panel can produce between 75-amps and 90-amps of power. However, this is possible only when the solar panel is in direct sunlight (around 6-hours of sunlight per day)

How Many Amps Does a 250-Watt Solar Panel Produce?

On average, 100-watts of solar panel should produce 5-amps of power. This means that a 250-watt solar panel should produce around 12.5-amps of power an hour. Obviously, this is just going to be an average.

There are several factors that could influence how many amps the solar panel produces. However, we will talk about that in a couple of sections.

Now, you do have to remember that these 5-amps of power are not going to be a continual amount of power. Your solar panel is only going to be working properly when it is in direct sunlight.

On average, there should be around 6-hours of sunlight per day in most parts of the United States. This means that each day, your 250-watt solar panel has the ability to produce around 75-amps of power.

It isn’t a huge amount, but it should be able to cover a couple that has light energy usage while they are out there on the road.

What Can Influence How Many Amps a 250-Watt Solar Panel Can Produce?

👉 As we said, direct sunlight is going to be the biggest factor in how many amps that the solar panel can produce. Once it gets dark, or a little bit cloudy, then the amount of power produced can go down.

This means that if you are doing a lot of your RV usage during the winter months of the year, you can probably expect the solar panel to be producing less power than if you were on the road during the summer months.

👉 The quality of the solar panel will also have an impact on the number of amps that it can produce. If you are in the market for a brand new solar panel, then it is important that you read through the advertising material for the solar panel.

This should give you a rough idea of what the manufacturer believes is the average hourly output for the solar panel when it is in direct sunlight.

Cheaper solar panels, of course, are going to be a lot less efficient. This is why many people steer clear of them.

Cheap solar panels are somewhat of a false economy as you will likely need to buy more of them in order to keep up with your power requirements.

👉 Remember, improvements to technology can improve the number of amps that a 250-watt solar panel can produce.

So, as the years go on, you can expect a 250-watt solar panel to become more and more efficient at converting that sunlight into usable amps.

Read also: Can You Leave Solar Panels Unplugged or Disconnected? (The Truth)

Why is Knowing the Amps Important?

Amps are, essentially, the amount of power that a device consumes. Amps are really a calculation of the wattage and voltage, but we won’t go too much into that since most devices will just list the amperage (listed as either A or AH).

When a device lists an AH, it means amperage per hour. So, if something is 10AH, then it is going to require 10 amps of power per hour to run. So, if you are running it for 10-hours, you need 100-amps. 

We are sure that you can see by now just how important knowing how many amps that a solar panel produces is. It is all about knowing whether you are going to be able to power everything inside of your vehicle or not. 

How Much Can 250 Watts of Solar Run? >> Check out the video below:

Do You Need to Pair a Battery with a Solar Panel?

Yes.

Remember, when the sun goes down, your solar panel is no longer going to be producing any power. This means that if your electrical system is hooked purely up to to the solar panel and nothing else, then your RV is not going to be receiving any power. 

👉 Batteries can store power throughout the day. So, if you want to use the power of an evening, you will need to be charging a battery using the solar panel.

Ideally, you will want to have enough batteries to provide all of the power that you need for the evening. So, if you are planning on using 100ah of power when the sun is not providing power to that solar panel, then you need to have batteries that can store at least 100ah of power (most of them can do, don’t worry)

👉 It isn’t a case of just hooking the battery up to the solar panel, though. Oh no. It will also need to be hooked up to the charge controller. We won’t go into too much depth on the purpose of the charge controller here.

However, it is essentially a little device that will split the power coming from the solar panel between the battery and the RV’s general power load throughout the day.

The charge controller will also help to ensure that the batteries are not damaged by too much power coming through on them. Although, that is something that is out of the scope of this article. 

Read also: 5 Effective Ways to Charge a Dead Travel Trailer Battery

How Do You Know How Many Watts You Need in a Solar Panel?

So, now the big question is; how many watts do you need your solar panel to be? Is a 250-watt solar panel going to be enough? Well, hopefully, with the information that we have given you, you should have a rough idea about what type of solar panel that you need.

However, we are going to break it down for you.

Working out how many amps you need

There are a couple of ways that you can try and work out how many amps that you need. Either method is fine, although one will likely end up giving you a far more accurate figure than the other.

Method 1

The first method is to try and work out the amperage of the most used items in your RV. For example, you know that the fridge will likely be used for 24-hours a day, so you can look at the amperage of that and multiply it by 24.

You may be using a TV for a couple of hours per day. So, you take the amperage of that and multiply it by however many hours you are using it.

We are sure that you get the drift here. Just try and get a rough idea of your power consumption. Factor in the lights, air conditioning, etc. It is a convoluted method, but it works.

Method 2

Perhaps the simplest method is to monitor battery consumption. Head out on the road for a couple of days and see how much power you use from the batteries.

Do not try and conserve power at all here. Everything that you should be doing should be similar to how you would normally use the power.

Using one of these methods will give you a rough amperage that you are consuming per day. Add a few amps onto this, and then you can move onto working out what type of solar panel you need.

Working out the size solar panel you need

As we said before, a 250w solar panel can produce around 75-amps of power per day. So, if you are consuming roughly 3-amps of power per hour, then this is the type of solar panel for you.

Anything more, then you may have to up yourself to 300-watts, or maybe even 450-watts.

Just remember that each 100w of power will translate to roughly 6 amps produced per hour, and you will have a rough idea of the size of solar panel that you need.

Remember, this 6-amps per hour is only going to be a thing for 6-8 hours of the day, depending on the amount of direct sunlight that you are getting.

So, it is only an average. This is why we always recommend that people overestimate things if power is an absolute priority.

How to check amperes and voltages of solar panels >>Check out the video below:

Buying the solar panel

Armed with your information, you can now go out there and pick up a solar panel for your needs. Let’s assume that a 250-watt solar panel is going to be the right choice for you. Although, this advice will apply no matter which solar panel you are purchasing.

👉 The first thing that you will want to look for on that solar panel product page will be the number of amps that the solar panel is able to produce an hour.

Cheaper solar panels will likely have a far lower output. Multiply this figure by 6. If it comes close to the power consumption that you require per day, then this is going to be the perfect solar panel for you.

👉 Obviously, you will also want to try and read the reviews for any solar panel that you look at. This way, you will be able to ensure that the solar panel that you purchase is going to last.

You don’t really want something that is going to be breaking down on you while you are out there on the road, right? A good solar panel could easily last a decade or two.

So, it is going to be a pretty decent investment if you decide to pick up a quality solar panel.

👉 Remember, if one solar panel is not able to provide you with all of the power that you need, you can chain multiple solar panels together. In many cases, this may actually end up being the fast more cost-effective option for you.

Some people will even have one solar panel powering their batteries, and then a second solar panel providing the power that the RV needs throughout the day.

Read also: Pop Up Camper Battery: Type of Battery, Maintenance, and Setup

Conclusion 

As you can see, predicting how many amps a 250-watt solar panel produces is dependent on a lot of factors. However, you can assume that it is going to be about 75 amps per day, or 12.5 amps per hour.

This should be more than enough for a couple that as light energy usage. However, if you are a family, or you are running some pretty bulky units inside of your RV, then you will probably need more solar power than this.

It isn’t uncommon for a couple that may spend a couple of days every now and then just relaxing in their RV to require upward of 500-watts of solar panel. 

References

https://www.etrailer.com/faq-how-much-solar-power-rv.aspx

https://ecotality.com/