Talk to me about solar panels

[JapanRed]

Hi all,

Being relatively new to caravanning (18 months into ownership now) we are still learning things as we go along.

We brought the caravan out of storage last week and the battery was dead (no surprise there). What I didn’t anticipate was problems with the alarm, motor mover and heating system due to the dead battery.

We would like to avoid this next winter; it’s not practical for us to go to site every month to manually hook up a charger and I guess removing the battery completely over winter will once again cause the aforementioned problems. I’m thinking solar panels will be our best bet? We don’t go off grid so don’t need the solar panels to generate any power whilst using the ‘van; it will only be to maintain charge over winter.

What wattage would I need? How easy are they to install? Do I need something to prevent overcharging or to work on a 7 day cycle charging for just a few hours per week?

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thanks. Rob

[JapanRed]

Anyone?

[Harry90]

Really easy to install, just a case of a few bolts or glueing it on depending on your preferred solution then running the wiring. In the first case I'd work out your current draw with everything turned on then source a panel to suit with a bit of redundancy should you add extra electrical devices later on. Your charge controller will stop the panel from over-charging and they are about £20 for a basic one. Don't forget a few inline fuses should the wires short on something and try to keep the panel covered until everything is connected up to the battery.

As an example, I fitted a 120W panel on the roof of the Land Rover to power a 12v fridge that pulls a maximum of 5 amps but normally settles to around 2amps per hr and it works perfectly, even when left for a week with no top-up.

If you want to save some cash, pop to your local caravan/camper van builder and ask if they have recently upgraded somebody else's gear / if the old one is going spare, my panel and controller was £50 plus a crate of beer for enough wire to connect it up.

[JapanRed]

Thanks very much

[ColinM50]

Mine is 60W I think and seems enough t keep the habi battery charged but doesn't charge the starter battery. By choice if I were choosing a panel I'd get one to charge both batteries.

Lots of info here if it helps

https://www.lifesure.co.uk/articles/a-guide-to-sol...

[Zooks]

I put a 100w monocrystaline on my camper van with a cheap sunix 20a controller.
Nothing fancy at all but keeps my 80A hab battery fully charged off grid.
I also have a load sensing relay for when the vans running and a bypass switch to allows the panel to charge the van battery.
Well worth £100 outlay

[JapanRed]

Thanks all. Booked in to get one fitted at same time as my next service