[rames14]

As Carl said, part of this is education. The 1200 I Solar has a lot more components than most talk about on the forum. We even have one member that says you can do it for $1000. I will agree that you can probably do it yourself cheaper, but for those wanting a turnkey system it is hard to beat.

COMPONENTS
2, 30A solar roof ports w/ MC4 connectors & 10 AWG MPPT solar charging circuits
4, Future Solutions 300-watt solar panels & CS2 splitters
2, 50A Victron SmartSolar MPPT charge controllers w/Bluetooth app
3000-watt inverter/charger w/ built-in transfer switch (all outlets inverted)
2, soft start air conditioners
Zamp Solar portable solar charge port
Victron SmartShunt battery monitor w/Bluetooth app
Victron Cerbo GX
Battery Guardian
2, 270 Ah Dragonfly Energy heated Lithium-ion batteries
Precision Circuits power control system

Not everyone needs all of the components, but if you are talking a path forward from 400 watts to 1200 watts equal to the 1200 I, there are a lot more components and integration. For example, the Precision Circuits energy management system allows you to augment shore power with battery power. If you moochdock, it’s nice to be able to run the microwave and AC with a 15 amp plug from your friend’s house.

We have a number of people that could do it on the forum, but most of us couldn’t. And, since it’s factory installed, it’s covered under our extended warranty. It all starts by what you are trying to accomplish, how handy you are, how much room is available and how much you can afford. An example of room is adding another three 300 watt panels on a 3121 or 3231. Space is tight. We couldn’t put a Winegard Travl’r on our 3230 (old designation with RV fridge) because there wasn’t space.

In our 2021 3230CK, we use 10 amps per hour from about 4:30 pm to 8:30 am during the winter in Arizona just to run alarms, chargers, inverter, etc. Now add in TV, residential fridge if you have one, lights, 10 amps per hour with gas furnace and fan off, coffee, etc. We usually use about 200 amps of battery on our January to March trip from when we stop charging to when we start again. Over the course of a sunny day, we would get about 4.1 kWh per day (4100/12=341 amps replenishment). Remember that 10 amps/hr? 24x10=240 amps with RV fridge. That means we end up, with 1200 watts of solar, 101 amps to brew coffee, use the TV/Satellite, microwave, lights, etc. (By the way, that LED accent lighting will run 6 amps/hr).

Did I know this before we got our Super Solar? No. This is what we learned traveling with Ron (Arkware) for 8 weeks. Having two virtually identical units next to one another helped us to learn a lot. Again, it starts with what you are expecting. YMMV.