perfect storm of bad assumptions

It is easy to get burned out answering the same questions over and over.  It’s one of the reasons I started work on the RVwiki in general and the Gentle Introduction to Solar article in particular;  collect the info and point folks there.  With any luck they’ll read it _before _ making uninformed and $$$ decisions.

Let’s consider what has gone wrong in one situation.  I want to shed light on the larger issue, not beat on this particular poster.  At least they are willing to ask questions and get input.

Issue by issue:

I have a short school bus I'm turning into a motor home.

Cool!

My electrical is all set up and I have 2 house batteries: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aToXVyR_g9g&t=178s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aToXVyR_g9g&t=178s)

The video description notes:

After doing the research I decided it would be safest to have professionals install the electrical in my bus. Here's an explanation from the fine people at Camping World explaining how it works.

Blind leading the blind.

Like the CW folks explaining that once you hit “10 or 9 volts it’s starting to drain pretty good.”  I’d say so.  We might hope they were considering voltage sag under extreme draws, but the context was interior lighting.

Massive inverter shown, looks ike 2000w.

If I'm reading the receipt right I got a 24 Series AGM Battery #34

Two tiny (!) 12v (!) AGM (!) batteries.  Not a a great choice for a first-timer who will surely kill the bank.

**My power needs are pretty low:** coffee maker (!), crock pot (!), mini-fridge (!), laptop and projector (?). I have solar-powered lights and a solar-powered fan to make a swamp bucket, so I'm hoping to forego the AC (!), but I might cave in if it gets too hot. [**Emphasis** and incredulous punctuation added.]

Yeah, no.

Those needs are not “pretty low”.  The setup would probably power the laptop with a DC adapter, unless the machine is a powerful one suitable for video editing, etc.  There are very low power projectors (palm-sized ones that run off an internal battery) so I will not bang on that too hard.

A friend recommended [a [100w solar suitcase](https://amzn.to/2J39x80) w/charge controller built in].

Not even in the same ballpark.  Not even.

Here is a list of things people are running at different solar power ratings.