Solar Panel Permanently on Roof

[ronsrecord]

Very smart and clean fitting Adeybruce.

[Adeybruce]

A fraction less tidy inside! I will attempt to find a better way to bring the wires across the inside of the roof. From there they go into the box above the bed, then into the wardrobe where I have located the dual charger/controller. One wire goes off to the leisure battery and the other, eventually will head off to the vehicle battery - once I have worked out a good way to get it there.

The installation has been been complemented with a Waeco CF50 compressor fridge, so no more voodoo magic to achieve what seems like the Holy Grail - a cold beer. This has come at the price of no longer being able to afford to buy beer (or food, or house the children or feed the dog). But I do now have a bloody cold fridge, and that's what counts!

[MattBW]

That looks very tidy indeed.

I am going for something similar, and the wires will go down into my wardrobe too. Already wired up my regulator to the two batteries just need a nice dry day to install the panel now.

[ghost123uk]

One wire goes off to the leisure battery and the other, eventually will head off to the vehicle battery - once I have worked out a good way to get it there.

You could perhaps tap it into the feed for the original VW courtesy light. It is permanently connected to the main battery's +ve (via the fuse board). The light comes on when the door pin is earthed on opening the door. The wire will be quite capable of handling the output from the SP (via a fuse of course).

[MattBW]

Could that set of the alarm off if you have it wired to your door light switches?

[ghost123uk]

Could that set of the alarm off if you have it wired to your door light switches?

No, it would be OK, the alarm trigger wire has 12volts on it but at very low current. It is connected to the "earthy" side of the bulb and therefore to the pin switch, so, when the pin switch is earthed on opening the door, the trigger wire senses this "earthing" of it's low current 12 volts and sets the alarm off. As the SP output goes to the "live side" of the bulb the potential difference between the main circuit and the alarms trigger wire = zero, so alarm won't be affected.

[MattBW]

Excellent, I will give that a try then, sounds like a tidier wiring option.

[Adeybruce]

Thanks for the complements on the installation - more luck than good judgement on my part. Ghost, thanks for the unprompted tip on how to feed the vehicle battery with all that lovely free solar power - very much appreciated.

[MattBW]

Fitted the panel tonight, fed the cables into the van. Will wire it in tomorrow.

[Adeybruce]

Matt, how did it go? Success?

[MattBW]

It's now in and glad to report charging my leisure battery. I will have to get some pics sorted but here is one of it on the roof.

The 80w panel fits beautifully on the leisure drive poptop between the luggage rack and the skylight, hugs the roof almost perfectly. The hardest part was routing the cable from the rear cupboard upto the roof where the cables came in.

Unfortunately in the process of wiring it up, I may have knocked or disturbed something as now my Touring/Onsite switch/battery tester only works when the engine is running now and switching it down to onesite/12v does nothing. So 12v lights etc dont work unless engines running. Not sure how though as I didn't touch the wiring panel at all, worst case threading through the power cable has disturbed existing wiring.

Looks like I have a weekend of fault finding ahead, the van wiring in places isn't the best so needs updating. It may just be my poor understanding of electronics.

[Mocki]

I would hazard a guess that you have either blown the fuse from the leisure battery , or disconnected the leisure battery after the split charger input, as the lights ect only working when the engine is running says they are running on the split charge only. Check the connections at the battery !

[MattBW]

Thanks Steve, I will definitely check that out, hopefully tonight with more light I will be able to see whats up.

Fingers crossed just a fuse or connection

[ghost123uk]

Note the following is not (unlikely anyway) to be anything to do with the current problem.

Just a heads up for anyone wiring an SP to a (any) control panel. I made a school boy error, but quickly figured out my mistake before any damage was done. I wired my SP to the centre terminal of my "car / caravan" (read as "main / leisure batteries) switch on the panel. My thinking was "I can now use the SP to charge either battery, via the switch". However, what would happen then is that if you have the switch in the centre ( = all "off" ) position, the SP is free to supply any / all ancillaries (LED lights, phone charge sockets, Radio (in my case) etc) but it does so with no battery in circuit. Thus, with no voltage regulation in circuit (the battery does this), it allows up to ~19 volts to reach those items, which would certainly damage them.

I mention this just in case anyone else has the same idea

[Peter-T]

Matt, that looks fantastic! Is it a semi-flexible panel? Could you tell me how you've attached it to the roof as I want to do the exact same...

Cheers