[scottz]

Originally Posted by EricHarmon

Thank you both! I certainly wouldn't buy solar panels to reduce electric costs. I was thinking of them because of an upcoming trip through Alaska, when there will be several days in a row on the road without much in the way of civilization. I didn't even realize they wouldn't power the microwave. So perhaps I'm looking at the wrong thing, and what I would need to look into for those days would be a generator. Apologies for what turned out to be a silly question; I'm incredibly new to this (so new that I don't even have my RV yet; making a list of what I need to buy and equip it with).

No problem. I dry camp most of the time and have both solar and generator. I don't run the generator much; if I do it is because I need to run the microwave, air conditioner or charge my batteries because the sun is not out. If I had to chose one, it would be solar.

It is possible to run a microwave from an inverter, but it has to be a big inverter. I think microwaves are about 1500W, so the inverter has to be bigger than that. Of course, you would have to consider how long your batteries would last pulling that much out of them; my inverter is 2000W and I would not do it.