Are solar panels any good????

[tjoynson]

Hi all,

Just bought myself a T25 and am off around Europe for 3 or 4 months. Planning on visiting all the usual places plus Croatia, Greece, Morocco etc.

In this day and age, will be traveling with a laptop, digital camera, mobile phone etc and was wondering if it was worth buying a solar panel.

Really looking for any information on what bits you need to buy, how difficult they are to fit and what size panel to go for.

Also, are the wind machines any good or better to stick with solar?

All help much appreciated.

Tom

[toomanytoys]

work out how long you will be sat using the equipment, what size aux battery you have and how long it is before you will drive again between stops...

The biggest key to it is swiching things off when you dont need them....

Solar panel will be ok if you get a big one.. but it may make more sense to install a second aux battery... and get mains hookup when on a site for a few days...

[Other-Power]

For the purposes of traveling within Europe I would suggest buying a couple of Aux batteries and stick them under the rear bench seat, buy a mains charger and charge them off the van when traveling and pay for a plug in on a site.

I suggest you get LED lights as thats the biggest use of energy that you can cut down.

Both solar PV and wind turbines will be to costly for the purposes of traveling.

Hope this helps

Jon

[DiscoDave]

however i have heard that solar pannals are rediculeously*spelling* cheap in morocco, cos that's just about all they have! maybe wait and get one there!

[mud]

a solar panel is a good idea for that part of the world. Just make sure you make a list of what electrical equipment you intend running it will give you an idea of what output to go for. Try and get a mono or polycrystaline panel- look on ebay., not cheap but guaranteed for 20 years. Avoid amorphous panels- they suck. Get a leisure battery and keep it separate from the starter battery, you will also need a charge regulator and fuse box, again look on ebay. They are easy to install and once fitted will make your travels far more enjoyable. Just ask if there's anything else you would like to know

[Other-Power]

however i have heard that solar pannals are rediculeously*spelling* cheap in morocco, cos that's just about all they have! maybe wait and get one there!

Probably hot water solar panels, not ones that make elecy

Jon

[Other-Power]

visiting all the usual places plus Croatia, Greece, Morocco etc.

If your spending more of your time in places where its not direct sun then I say still go for the larger second battery route.

Cheaper
more power when you need it
and less likely to be stolen, less likely to grab the attention of thieves!

A solar PV panel needs to be positioned towards the sun, each time you park up you would have to park so the panel is best in the sun.

Also if you will be doing a lot of driving then keeping the batteries topped up should be easy.

Jon

[mud]

visiting all the usual places plus Croatia, Greece, Morocco etc.

If your spending more of your time in places where its not direct sun then I say still go for the larger second battery route.

Cheaper
more power when you need it
and less likely to be stolen!

cheaper yes but modern solar panels are designed to work on overcast days

[clartsonly]

my colleague at work has one for his boat, we were talking about these the other day and he laughed at me when I talked about the 1.5w and 13w ones and said that the only decent ones are above 50w. quite expensive, I saw one on top of a holdsworth villa on ebay yesterday.

http://www.solar-batterycharger.co.uk

[mud]

yes thats absolutely right, those little solar panels you plug into the cigarette lighter socket have miniscule output and are really only for preventing your batteries losing charge if laid up for a while. You do get what you pay for and
anything below 40 watts is pointless. You will need to be spending at least £200 on the panel plus about £20 on a regulator

[clartsonly]

why not get this

£20 generator <- but broken :doh:

or this one £36 with 20minutes left

other generator

[Other-Power]

cheaper yes but modern solar panels are designed to work on overcast days

They do indeed work in 'overcast' days but there output is still a fraction of what its maximum will be.

The way solar panels works means they need a device called a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) to get the best out put of them in overcast days. A MPPT is only normally found on £100+ solar charge controllers.

I would say that a solar panel will be a very expensive way of producing your electricity when you have an engine on board.

£200 for a solar panel
£20 for a cheap charge controller
£50 for a large battery

£270

using a couple of batteries to store the power you will need using the engine


2 batteries at £50 each
1 decent battery charger for when your at a site £50

£150

£270 - £150 = £120 for fuel, food, drink etc etc

Thats my thinking

Jon

[mud]

cheaper yes but modern solar panels are designed to work on overcast days

They do indeed work in 'overcast' days but there output is still a fraction of what its maximum will be.

The way solar panels works means they need a device called a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) to get the best out put of them in overcast days. A MPPT is only normally found on £100+ solar charge controllers.

I would say that a solar panel will be a very expensive way of producing your electricity when you have an engine on board.

£200 for a solar panel
£20 for a cheap charge controller
£50 for a large battery

£270

using a couple of batteries to store the power you will need using the engine


2 batteries at £50 each
1 decent battery charger for when your at a site £50

£150

£270 - £150 = £120 for fuel, food, drink etc etc

Thats my thinking

Jon

I like your thinking Jon on cost saving but a £200 plus panel doesn't need an MPPT. trust me, I've had about 20 big solar panels over the years and have run the beefiest pimpest stereo through the darkest winter even on a single 80 watt panel and still had enough for LED lighting and occasional laptop use.