Flagship tool

Solar planner

Start with the rig in your driveway. Lay panels around the A/C and vents, add up what you run, and pull real sun for your ZIP. You’ll get three builds with parts lists you can shop or hand to an installer.

Updates as you goBuilt on the original Megawatt mathSaves on this device

1 Pick your rig

2 Lay out the roof

0 panels fit
36.0 ft

Starting values depend on the rig type. Measure yours, front cap to rear cap.

8.00 ft
Air conditioners
Vents and fans
Panel size

Panel sizes are example footprints for planning. Check the spec sheet of the panel you buy.

4 in

Room for the roof edge, sealant, and a place to step.

Panels fit

0

Roof capacity

0W

Roof covered

0%

PanelA/C unitVent or fanFront of rig on the left

3 What you run each day

0 Wh/day
Add your own

Use the watts on the appliance label. Watts × hours gives watt-hours.

Daily use

0Wh

AC through inverter

0W

if it all runs at once

4 Where and how you camp

4.0 sun hours
Travel style

This picks which of the three builds is highlighted. You can still compare all three.

No ZIP yet, so the planner uses the sun-hour preset below.

Sun-hour preset

5 Your plan

Class A
Sun0 h
Panels0 W
Battery0 Wh
Loads0 Wh

System sizing

Boondocker
10 ft
5 ft

Parts list

0 items

Megawatt picks are the exact links from the original calculators. Search links open Amazon results for the spec, with the same Associates tag. Type the prices you see to total the build. Nothing is priced here.

Your estimate$0
Add Megawatt picks to Amazon cart

Next step

Rather not do the roof work yourself?

Send this plan to James and get matched with an installer near you. Megawatt’s installer list only includes shops from public sources, with the source shown.

Get matched with an installer

How the plan is built

Panels. Panels are packed row by row from the front, in both orientations, keeping 2 inches of clearance around each A/C and vent. A/C units sit on the centerline. Their 40 × 30 inch footprint and the 16 inch vent square are planning sizes, not measurements of your units.

Array. The break-even array is daily Wh ÷ (sun hours × 0.75), the same formula as the solar array calculator. Weekend sizes for half of that, Boondocker for all of it, Off-grid for 15% more. Packs are the smallest mix of the four linked packs that reaches the target.

Battery. Each tier stores enough for a stretch with no sun at all: 1 day for Weekend, 2 for Boondocker, 3 for Off-grid, with the original 1.5-day floor and the original Vatrer battery picks and voltage steps. Those tier choices are planner assumptions, and you can see them all here.

Inverter, controller, wire. The inverter covers only the 120V loads you checked, times 1.25, rounded up to a common size. The controller is array W ÷ battery V × 1.25, rounded up to a common MPPT rating. Wire uses the Megawatt wire table at 3% drop for each run length you set.