13w solar panel

[Scouser1]

Makro have an offer of a 13w suitcase solar panel for £49.99 + vat. Having looked at them before, that's dead cheap- but what could I expect from that wattage?

Scouser

 

[geoffh]

Maplin have got them on offer at

 

[rayc]

Scouser, I have one and I measured the current on a decent day and it was providing approx 1 amp which is in line with the spec [13W divided by 12v = approx 1 Amp].

In practice I found that it was ok in the summer for a trickle charge for the lights and pump and battery held up all week, but it would not help much if TV etc. was used a lot.

Horses for courses and all that, what are you expecting from it?

 

[Steven_374224300]

If you use a solar panel, then obtain one which is half the amp hour of your battery.

I.E. if you have a 105 amp hour battery you should be looking at a 50 Watt panel to provide enough charge to keep up with the drain on the battery.

Steven

 

[JeremyClarksson]

Steven

Beg to differ - in an ideal world the solar panel should be able to replace the charge you are taking from the battery and is unrelated to the size of the battery, in fact having a bigger battery will enable you to go longer with a smaller panel.

Scouser

We have one of these panels and my feeling is it would keep you going in the summer when there are long days in which you are out of the van and not watching TV etc.

Avoid using any heat appliances like kettles, hair driers, blower etc.

In the winter with more lights and TV you will struggle to notice any extra charge but it will enable you to stay charged for longer.

We do lots of rallies etc and my ideal would be somewhere in the 40-80 watt range for us.

At the moment we run 2 batteries and 1 and 1/2 of these panels (watch the glass ones - easily broken! - and heavy) and at the new year lasted a a five day rally with some use of TV without running either battery into the red.

 

[rob_jax]

Jeremy and Steven,

I'd tend to support Steven in this - if you are a big user of battery power - then it's likely you'll have a high capacity battery - and then using a 50 watt panel with a 100AH battery makes sense.

Likewise, someone only using a small amount of power would probably only have a small battery - our Eriba has a 65 AH battery and a 30 watt panel suffices.

But Jeremy is right too - this rule of thumb only works if you bought the right size battery in the first place - where right doesn't mean the biggest in the shop.

Robert

 

[JeremyClarksson]

RJ and Steven

I see part of the logic in your argument but see it this way-

At the moment I have 2 batteries totalling 195AH and a solar panel total of appx 20W - this means the solar panel is just adding a little capacity and I am relying predominately on the charge in the batteries to last the stay.

I would like to get a solar panel of 40-80W when the time is right and that will mean that I will probably drop taking the smaller battery reducing my AH to 110.

This will mean that the main source of power is the solar panels charge into the battery during the day.

Either way my ability to last 1 week or more will remain about the same. If I were only going for a weekend I would not need the panels even though I still use them.

If I were looking at a longer or indefinite stay I should be looking to rely on solar power more and more.

If you have a large solar panel I can not see the point in having a larger battery unless you think you are going to use most of its charge by morning. Even with 4-5 hours of TV during a rainy winter evening we have not run either battery into the red overnight.

 

[emmitdb]

Scouser,

How about some information that isn't theory etc.

Last year I attended a 10night holiday rally in Cornwall on a site without EHU. I used a 13w briefcase solar panel exactly of the sort you are contemplating buying. Admittedly it was in the longest daylight period but I went the whole period and watched television on a 10.4" 12 volt television withou the necessity of recharging the battery (which was a 110 amp/hr capacity.

I hope the above info is of use to you.

Regards

Emmitdb

 

[Rodone]

We often stay on non EHU sites, using 95watts solar panels ( 1 X 45 and 1 X 50 watt) The battery is 110 amp/hr Elecsol which I chose because of the mover. I n the summer months we have easily managed two and half weeks away, and we use 'everything' - but use a bit of commonsense with it! In the winter, the same applies, but if we get the dull, overcast days, even with all that amount of panel, we tend to be sparing with the tv/dvd. I am just switching all of the halogen lamps to led, so that will make the battery consumption even lower. With the right set up, I am sure that, in a good summer, you could keep going almost indefinately. There is a good sense of achievement in managing without EHU - and it costs a bit less!

 

[staff]

HI.

I would look a this web site

www.detroitsolar.com

hope this will help give the guy a ring as he helped me

all the best.