Solar panel

[porthyt]

Hi,

Feel free to tell me that it won't work as I presume that it won't.

Can I connect a solar panel to my batteries through the 240v socket? Just thinking that if I had a panel on my roof then I could get a cable from the panel and plug it into the socket once parked up.

Cheers
Josh

[California Dreamin]

Your campers batteries are around 12.6 volts when charged.
A solar panel suitable for charging these batteries kicks out around 21 volts (unregulated) this is effectively 'stepped down'' to around 14 volts by the use of a 'solar panel charge controller'
NOTE* absolutely no a mention of MAINS voltage here! as 12 volt and 230 volt mains (in this context) are completely separate entities.

So NO! you cannot connect the solar panel to your mains circuit...it needs to be wired 'together with a charge controller' separately to your batteries.

Sure...on a house, different types of panels are used and wired in series to produced 'mains voltage' but not on a camper.

Martin

[CovKid]

Can see where you're coming from on this but as Martin says, that won't work for the reasons hes outlined. If the panel is to stay on the roof then a permanent route to the inside (with controller) is best way. Mine goes down the B channel although its something of a tricky job to drill the hole in exactly the right place due to the partially double-skin nature of these channels.

My installation went through a couple of revisions including the eventual removal of the standard solar panel plugs and the fitment of a dedicated junction box on the roof to get rid of the spaghetti you can end up with.