In trying to figure out my power needs, which directly impacted how challenging and costly the RV's power system was going to be, I created a list of various use-cases to get some sort of idea how much power at any given time I would be using and where so that I could properly size my power system. Specifically I was interested in a boondocking scenario where I wasn't connected to shore power and had to rely on my battery bank and possibly the solar PV panels.

All references to Amps assume 12V.

I plan on 10 LED lights each which consumes at maximum approximately 25W. I have plans to install 10 of these fixtures, so if every light in the cabin was on that's roughly 250W or a total of 21A.

I plan on installing a 12V TV, I haven't decided on a 24" or a 32" yet but the 32" consumes a maximum of 49W or 4A

In addition to watching the TV itself, we have to consider the things that might be connected to the TV to facilitate it's use.

I plan on having a Raspberry Pi Media / gaming center and ultimately that'll be a Raspberry Pi 4 which needs 15W in it's current iteration for a total of 1.25A

Finally let's consider if I really wanted to go crazy and have a full-fledged game console system like XBox One. The power usage on these devices is a wide range but from my research 200W seems like a fair number, or a whopping 16.6A!

So Breaking this down:

• Watching TV on Raspberry Pi: 5.2A
• Playing XBox: 20.6A

The computer setup in the RV will be centered around my Macbook Pro, ideally with an external monitor/keyboard/etc.

My MBP Charge adapter is rated at 87W, or 7.25A. A decent sized monitor I had laying around came out to be about 40W or 3.3A

So sitting at the desk, I would expect a maximum of roughly 11A

Eventually I hope to install a ToGo Roadlink WiFi system on the roof. Reports say it draws about 12W (1A) of power, which is great.

Taking a shower really just requires the water pump to be working, which looking around online seems to be about 90W or 7.5A. I guess you could include one light as well for 25W to bring it up to a maximum of 9.5A

That's when it's not cold outside. When it's freezing outside we need to keep the water itself from freezing as well. A 12V 150W water compartment heater (12.5A) will be installed to keep the water compartment above freezing. In addition, I plan on eventually installing a heater pad for the tank itself that consumes 65W (5.5A).

So in the summer it's 9.5A to take a shower, but in the winter it could be 27.5A!

This is a hard one to calculate reasonably. It could be just lighting (4 lights in the kitchen @ 100W/8.3A) if all you're doing is grabbing a bag of chips or making a sandwhich. But there are a lot of 12V appliances out there that I could see us acquiring and wanting to use while away from shore power.

In order to figure this out, I'll assume these devices all run on a standard "cig lighter" type 12V plug which are rated on the high end at 180W (Car plugs typically are between 10 and 15 Amps @ 12Vs)

If we want to give ourselves some flexibility, we might want to run two of these devices at the same time for a total of 360W or 30A (cooking is expensive!)

As a general rule there will be probably no more than 4 people "living" in the rig at any given point in time -- it's really not built for more! So what kinds of boondocking power usage can we see if we think of how the above things might be used at the same time?

• Someone cooking in the kitchen while making themselves a coffee (360W)
• Someone taking a shower (90W)
• Someone playing XBox (250W)
• Someone using the computer (130W)

That would be a total power draw of 830W / 70A and chances are my battery system (currently a usable 100ah) would last about 40-75mins before it totally drained on a sunny day!

This little exercise's point really is to try to understand what the maximum power consumption might be more than a practical expectation of how power might be used for planning purposes.

For the sake of argument, I'm going to assume my numbers are 20% off and plan on 1000W / 83A maximum.

Total Maximum Power Throughput: 83A / 1000W

Round to 100A / 1200W Maximum for wire sizing

• 360W, or 30A Service
• Two 15A PowerPole plugs

• 264W / 22A Service
• Dedicated Raspberry Pi Service 15W/ 2A
• Dedicated TV Powerpole (50W/5A)
• Dedicated Aux Powerpole (20A)

• Dedicated Raspberry Pi Service 15W/2A
• USB Ports x 4 @ 5V/2A (40W / 4A)
• Aux Powerpole (240W / 20A)

• Dedicated 12V Monitor Powerpole (25W / 3 A)
• Dedicated Computer Powerpole (87W / 7.25A - make 10A)