Short on Time? Here’s The Article Summary

This article is a guide for installing an Inergy solar kit on the roof of an RV. It covers the necessary parts included in the Silver Kit, such as the Apex Solar Generator, Solar Storm 100 Panels, LED Lights, and cables. The guide advises laying out the panels on the roof to ensure proper cable reach. It explains how to attach the Z brackets to the panels and then to the roof, emphasizing the importance of using self-adhesive roofing underlay and silicone for sealing.

The article also suggests feeding the 30-foot cable through a conduit box to keep it secure and protected from the weather. Overall, the guide provides a detailed, step-by-step process for installing an Inergy solar kit on an RV roof.

Introduction

Inergy Apex Installation Guide

This article is a guide for how to install an Inergy solar kit to the roof of your RV. For this article, we included pictures of how to attach an Inergy Silver kit to an RV; however, the same process would work for the Gold kit or the Bronze kit.   

The first step in installing your Inergy Kit is to ensure you have all the necessary parts and pieces. The Silver Kit includes the following:

• 1 x Apex Solar Generator
• 3 x Solar Storm 100 Panels
• 3 x Basecamp LED Lights 
• 1 x 30-foot Solar Panel Cable
• 2 x 6-foot Solar Panel Cable 
• 1 x AC Wall Charger
• Shoulder Carrying Strap
• User Guide

The only thing you need that is not included in the Gold, Silver, or Bronze kit is some Z brackets to mount the panels directly to the roof. You can find the brackets here. 

Each set of brackets comes with the proper hardware for a single panel. So, if you are installing a Silver kit, you need three. For a gold kit, you need five.

Start with Panels

It's smart to layout the panels on your roof where you want to install them, as you can see in the photo below. This way, you can ensure that the cables are long enough to reach between the panels and that the 30-foot cable is long enough to reach where you want it to enter the RV.

There are two cables on the back of the panels. These cables connect the panels together and connect the 30-foot solar panel cable to the generator.

 Once you know where the panels are going to go on the roof, you need to decide where the 30-foot cable will enter through the roof and go into the RV.

Choose the place where the 30-foot cable will enter the RV roof carefully. If you can find an existing hole to run the cable into your RV, you are ahead of the game. In some RVs, there is a natural place to run it, as pictured below.

This spot is where the old antenna used to be and a natural entrance for the cable.

If there isn't a natural place for you to feed the cable through or your RV isn’t prewired for solar, the most common place to feed the wire is through the roof vent for the refrigerator, like you can see in the picture below.

Once you have decided where to place your panels and measured them to ensure that your cables are long enough, get your Z brackets and attach them to the roof and your panels. The Z brackets come with all the screws, washers, and hardware required to do so.

First, attach your Z bracket to the panel and make sure it's attached well. 

Once you have all the brackets attached to the panel, attach the panel to the roof.

Attach the Z brackets to your panel first (as shown above), and then attach them to the roof.

We suggest putting some self-adhesive roofing underlay beneath the Z brackets before screwing them onto the roof.

Putting a dab of roofing silicone into the hole where you will drill the panels to the roof is a good idea, too.

 It will look like this when finished. 

While this is not strictly necessary, it's always best to be safe. We didn't put adhesive plastic or silicone on our RV the first time around, and after a year or so, we had some leaks. We took off the panels and added the silicone and adhesive paper afterward. It would have been much simpler to do it right the first time.

Pro Tip: Before screwing down the panels onto the roof, ensure you can access the wires on the back.  It is a pain in the butt to try and fish the cables out after the panels are fully screwed down. 

Once you attach the panels and screw them into the roof, run the 30-foot cable through the hole you have created.

We put a conduit box over the hole and fed the wire through that to keep the rain out. 

It's best to put another layer of silicone around the conduit box, just in case.

All that is left to do is to drill a hole through the box, feed the cable through, and you're good to go. 

 Voila!  You're done and ready to rock and roll.

Final Words

Now you can sit back and relax while you collect solar power from your roof. All you have left to do is connect your 30-foot cable to your Apex, and you're good to go!  Sit back and enjoy your new boondocking life!

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