RVBusiness, July/August 2020

J U L Y A U G U S T 2 0 2 0 RVBusiness 79 Go Power a subsidiary of Valterra Products LLC in Mission Hills Calif has quickly become a key supplier of solar solutions to the RV industry In the last few years officials for the Victoria B C based company told RVBusiness that as the popularity of solar energy has taken off so too has their business We grow every year and were pretty happy with how weve grown But I can say it started off a little slow said Mark Spilsbury business development manager at Go Power There were always a few early adopters that put in solar although I dont know if they even knew what it really did to be honest with you What helped fuel the business through the slow start was an RVing public that embraced the possibilities of going off grid and soon realized how solar energy provided the means to do so Spilsbury said Go Power marketed its full range of high quality solar chargers inverters controllers and power accessories directly to consumers via the aftermarket route which eventually buoyed the buying publics desire to have solar on board It didnt take long for OEMs to notice the end users demand for solar was on the rise which made Spilsburys job that much easier Before manufacturers would dive in with both feet however he said the first step was to get units pre wired The hardest part about putting solar on is running all the wires through the walls afterward so if we can get them to pre wire that speeds up the whole installation he said adding that 33 of all RVs built today are pre wired by Go Power for solar Were not the only ones doing it but theres a lot of solar prep going on That was phase one he continued and its been growing from there Now I have OEMs where instead of putting one solar panel on theyre putting three I had a couple just in the last month or two who wanted to look at eight panel systems Spilsbury said So theyre getting bigger and bigger Now that probably wont be standard but just the fact that they can do it and offer it as a total off grid package option is a wonderful thing Probably the most often asked question from consumers is how much solar do they need to run their RV air conditioner Theres no simple answer other than its a system wide equation Even the best systems operating under the sunniest of skies will still have certain limitations I dont think were completely there yet I know people like to say we are but the recharge time isnt there yet just because the draw is so big on an air conditioner Spilsbury said Running an AC for a little bit of time or putting it on low consumption we can get away with that now But necessity breeds innovation so sooner or later the relentless advancement of technology will capture the magic of running an air conditioner on solar power for extended periods of time yet without a massive and expensive system RVB More RVers Want to Take Rigs Off Grid Go Power Provides the Means to Do So Mark Spilsbury The growing trend of going off grid has helped boost the popularity of solar systems on RVs Image by @ system_ solutions Image by @ surf climb jess SupplySide