How much power does an RV use per day?

Answered by RV Parts Giant · Upland, CA · November 9, 2026

Short answer: Without air conditioning, our calculator puts a typical RV at about 470 to 880Wh a day: a 230Wh baseline for lights, pump, phones and fans, plus the fridge and the extras you run. One 13,500 BTU rooftop AC for 8 hours on a warm night adds about 6,700Wh, more than most rigs use in a week without it.

The number people quote for this varies wildly because the answer is really two questions: what the rig uses with the air conditioner off, and what the air conditioner adds. Our calculator works out both from the same figures, so here they are in watt-hours, the unit power stations and battery labels use.

Watt-hours a day by rig, AC off

These are the calculator's rig presets at the default settings. Each row is its daily amp-hours multiplied by 12.8V, the nominal voltage of a LiFePO4 house battery.

Rig and what the preset runs	Wh a day
Travel trailer: propane fridge, TV, morning coffee	about 474Wh
Off-road or teardrop: 12V fridge only	about 550Wh
Truck camper: 12V fridge, laptop	about 627Wh
Class A or Class C: 12V fridge, TV, coffee	about 755Wh
Fifth wheel: 12V fridge, TV, laptop, coffee	about 832Wh
Camper van: 12V fridge, laptop, Starlink Mini	about 883Wh

Every rig starts from the same 230Wh baseline. The biggest single swing is the fridge: a 12V compressor fridge counts about 320Wh a day, a propane fridge's controls about 38Wh. Two extras move the total more than people expect. A standard Starlink dish on most of the day adds about 576Wh, nearly a second rig's worth. A CPAP with its heated humidifier adds about 384Wh.

What air conditioning adds

The calculator counts the AC by its running watts, the hours you want it on, and how hard the night makes it work: about 35% of the time in the 70s, 55% in the 80s and 70% in the 90s. A mains rooftop unit also loses 8% through the inverter. For 8 hours overnight:

Air conditioner	Mild night	Warm night	Hot night
Rooftop 13,500 BTU (about 1,400W)	about 4,261Wh	about 6,696Wh	about 8,522Wh
12V rooftop, about 10,000 BTU (750W)	about 2,100Wh	about 3,300Wh	about 4,200Wh
Portable 12V/24V camping AC (300W)	about 840Wh	about 1,320Wh	about 1,680Wh

That table is why the AC question decides the whole system. A fifth wheel at 832Wh becomes about 7,500Wh on a warm night with a 13,500 BTU unit, or about 4,100Wh with a 12V rooftop unit instead.

Which side of the line you are on

The calculator uses your daily total to choose between a portable power station and a wired bank. Under about 900Wh a day, every preset above, a station is usually the better buy. Between 900Wh and 2kWh it still works, but you are close to its limit. Above that, or with a mains rooftop AC in the plan, a wired battery bank is the only thing that keeps up.

Your own rig will not match a preset exactly, so measure it. A shunt-based monitor shows the real amp-hours you use in a day within a weekend. Then run your own numbers in our RV solar & battery calculator. Tick what you actually run and it shows the daily figure, the bank and the solar to refill it.