EHU and Solar in Conjunction

Sammy79 · Sep 18, 2016

Hi Guys, I have a Zig Marque iii panel and a Leisure battery charger, but I would like to use a Solar panel in conjunction with the EHU. Would this be possible if I connect both the Battery charger and the Solar charging unit to the leisure battery or would additional electronics be needed for protection? I would greatly appreciate any info or advice with this as I will be using this van A lot for staying away for work and a lot of it will be off grid. Thanks.

ProfJohnL · Sep 18, 2016

Without knowing the internal construction of the Zig unit, I do not know if its a smoothed output or whether its a monopolar pulsed output.. This could be critical as it might impair or even damage the solar pane.

Sammy79 · Sep 19, 2016

Thanks prof, i will check what it says on the sticker / documentation.

Parksy · Sep 19, 2016

Any solar panel with sufficient wattage to charge a leisure battery will require a solar voltage regulator, sometimes called a solar controller.
There are various make and models available, the best and most efficient use Maximum Power Point Tracking technology, have a look on eBay or similar to check prices.
The regulator will only allow solar current to charge a leisure battery which is discharged to some degree, Sargent electrical are normally happy to offer advice on solar charging

chrisn7 · Sep 20, 2016

Its best to buy an all in one kit comprising the panel, a set of mounting feet, an electronic charge controller, caravan roof cable entry unit and cables.
Check that your chosen panel size has sufficient mountings as there are a couple of variations: some have full width types on the ends only, others have them at the 4 corners and larger panels (may) have one each on the long sides too.
The output cables from the panel pass to the controller, and the output from this connects directly to the battery-controllers may have 2 outputs for 2 batteries in motorhomes.

rcpilot · Sep 24, 2016

Why do you want to use a solar panel in conjunction with a hookup,
When you are on hook up the hookup charges the battery
or is that you want to charge the battery when not on hook up.
if you just want to keep the battery topped up when not on hook up, ie not using battery power, the rule of thumb is 10% of your battery capacity. ie if your battery is say 100A/H then a solar panel of 10 watts is enough and this will NOT require a solar controller.
if yo want to run on solar power alone this is a different kettle of fish and requires some mathematical knowledge to work out panel size etc etc and can cost an arm and a leg I know I've done it.

Parksy · Sep 24, 2016

rcpilot said:
Why do you want to use a solar panel in conjunction with a hookup,...

......if you want to run on solar power alone this is a different kettle of fish and requires some mathematical knowledge to work out panel size etc etc and can cost an arm and a leg I know I've done it.

A few years ago I bought a 12v 80w solar panel from a warehouse not far from where I live which advertised on eBay, a shunt type regulator from Maplins, a cable entry gland housing, the correct gauge automotice flex and a roof mounting kit plus two tubes of Sikaflex 525 to bond the bracket to the caravan roof, all for under £200.
I bought most of the parts separately via eBay, prices for panels have come down slightly now so a buyer could probably get the same components but with a 120 watt solar panel for the same money now.
Solar power can be expensive, mainly because anything associated with caravanning or sold in caravan accessory stores has massive mark ups so beware of being ripped off.
Shop around, the vast majority of solar panels are made in China, imported here and re-marketed as an expensive product that is somehow 'better' than a panel bought online. This is a fallacy, the only significant difference is between monocrystaline and polycrystaline panels, and even then for leisure caravan use the more important differences are in the leisure battery and the solar regulators rather than the panels.
If I was buying now I'd choose a MPPT regulator rather than the simple shunt version, but there is quite a price difference.
Solar power needn't be prohibitively expensive and if like us you use your caravan off grid at rallies and music festivals it's the best method to keep the battery charged in the lighter months.
.

rcpilot · Sep 24, 2016

I agree with the choice of panels (Chinese ones) ebay does sell cheap panels with no brand names on them making them far cheaper than the caravan shops sell them for. I go what they call dry camping if the sites allow me to not pay for a EHU, however what you can power with solar panels depends on 2 things battery bank and wattage of solar panels. If you have a large aray then yes a MPPT controller is a must I have a 60amp tristar made by Morningstar looks after my batteries.
All I run off my batteries (2 - 6v Trojans wired in series to give 12v each with a capacity of 240A/H but as wired in series the capacity is as 1 battery) is lights pumps tv (240v led run off 1 150 watt plug in inverter, a kettle and coffee machine run of a 1400 watt pure sine wave inverter.
the wattage of my panels are 320 in total and on a good day can put upwards of 25amps per hour into the batteries on a bad day I am lucky if I get 1.5 amps per hour, obviously I run my fridge on gas ( a refillable system where by 6 kg of gas costs me about £6 at a garage selling auto gas.
On bad days,if there are a few, I have to resort NOT to use the coffee machine and also use a gas kettle, otherwise my inverter will shut down to prevent the batteries from becoming run down too low all told this set up cost me aprox £1500 but also remember that you must not run leisure batteries down below 50% of their capacity and some of the wiring in my van is as thick as your index finger

Parksy · Sep 25, 2016

All that my 12v solar system is used for is to power the existing 12v appliances fitted to our caravan, we use a gas kettle if off ehu and rarely watch tv using the inverter, mainly the news programmes.
I replaced all of the halogen bulbs with led's which are less power hungry, and the solar panel keeps the water running and the toilet flushing. I run the fridge and heating off grid using lpg.
Our off grid weekend outings to festivals, rallies and wartime weekends are interspered with trips to fully equipped caravan parks where we book fully serviced pitches whenever possible.
I use two 110 a/h leisure batteries, one connected and a spare at home on a C-Tek smart charger, and I swap the batteries over every month to avoid any possibility of drastic discharge.
This is probably why there is such a massive price difference in our respective solar arrays, I only go off grid during the summer months and I drink instant coffee, but mainly tea

WoodlandsCamper · Sep 25, 2016

Parksy said:
I replaced all of the halogen bulbs with led's which are less power hungry,

The caravan industry was thinking when we bought our van new 4.5 years ago - all lighting (and it's everywhere, including 'mood' lighting) was LED as standard, so we don't have to change anything if we want to go solar.

Parksy · Sep 25, 2016

Our once new caravan will be 9 years old on October 10th, it's amazing how time flies.

Swift were exploring the possibilities of led lighting when we bought our caravan. One of our first outings was a trip to Yorkshire where we went on a factory tour at Swift.
Their head of design described led lighting for caravans to us as 'a dark art' at the time.
Obviously the technology has advanced since then and led caravan lighting is more common than any other now.

rcpilot · Sep 25, 2016

We tend to use CL sites or similar where EHU's are at the discretion of the farmer, and we also tend to stay for a min of a week, also by my way of thinking a good cup of coffee made from beans is far better than most of the freeze dried muck you get these days.
To be honest you can take pot luck with the weather, you can hit it lucky and get wall to wall sunshine, on the other hand if there is no sunshine to be had a large array of panels kicking out maybe 1 - 2 amps is better that one kicking out 0.5amps.
The tv is one of those that has an internal transformer rectifier so 240v is the only way to go I cannot see the merits in paying for a caravan friendly tv costing an arm and a leg, besides we like to watch a decent film at night, tv shows these days yuk

WoodlandsCamper · Sep 25, 2016

rcpilot said:
The tv is one of those that has an internal transformer rectifier so 240v is the only way to go I cannot see the merits in paying for a caravan friendly tv costing an arm and a leg,

I wouldn't say £120 is an arm and a leg. We have one of these and find it very good. 12v and CD player as well, very light weight.

Parksy · Sep 25, 2016

rcpilot said:
We tend to use CL sites or similar where EHU's are at the discretion of the farmer, and we also tend to stay for a min of a week, also by my way of thinking a good cup of coffee made from beans is far better than most of the freeze dried muck you get these days.

:lol: :lol: :lol: 1500 quid to make coffee using solar power is an expensive cup of coffee, have you tried Starbucks? :lol: :lol: :lol:
We often use C&CC CS sites but choose those with ehu whenever possible.
To run mains appliances via a solar array and inverter regularly the money for the right kit to do it will soon add up.
Weight is a major consideration for me apart from cost, I installed my panel on the caravan roof which eats into my payload. A bigger panel would be heavier and wouldn't be cost effective for me or for most weekend ralliers or occasional users like myself.
My point is that solar power for occasional 12v use needn't be prohibitively expensive.

rcpilot · Sep 27, 2016

First of all I calculated that a caravan on average uses aprox 1amp/hour over 24hours ( but can be higher depends on what you switch on) it even eats power when you think everything is off, I checked mine and it consumes about 0.3amps (probably the alarm)per hour with everything switched off.
To replace that you have to have a solar array that will output that in the worst case scenario, you cannot bank on getting wall to wall sunshine every day, I have 320 watts of panels which on a bad day only output about 2 amps/ hour I need that because I have a total of 240A/H capacity in my batteries which after factoring in 50% gives a usable 120 A/H, I paid the going rate for good panels which if you pay more than £1 per watt including postage you are being ripped off.
On average an EHU will cost you £3 per day that's £52 for a 2 week stay I calculated that for a 2 week holiday a caravan uses aprox 2850 watts of electricity at current prices that equates to 27p so your are paying on average £51.73 for nothing.I DO NOT JUST USE SOLAR POWER FOR MAKING COFFEE YOU SILLY MAN ,pray tell me where you can find a Starbucks in the middle of a field, I bought a good pure sine wave inverter to run mains equipment because modified sine wave inverters can damage some equipment, better to be safe than sorry, sorry means you have to buy a new appliance. I bought a good solar controller which looks after my batteries and it does just that , I sent the Trojan battery company in America some figures I took on the usage and they reported back that my batteries were in tip top condition and that's over 5 years worth of use
We go away a lot during the year for holidays and to shows etc on average since I bought the equipment I have saved aprox £1400 on hook-ups, yes I understand that I have to factor in the cost of equipment, also because I have a refillable gas system, as I use the gas for the fridge , heating water and heating the caravan( when cold) and for cooking I have saved about £1100 over the cost of calor bottles over the years, the 2 added together more than covers the initial cost of the equipment so I now save, and have been for a while now, hand over fist every time the caravan leaves the drive while you are still putting your hands in your pockets who's laughing now.
From your profile "older but not much wiser" says a lot and is quite true.
Woodlands Camper could you tell me the make and model of your tv please.

Moderator Edit:
RC Pilot
I've just seen this and was sorely tempted to remove or to edit it.
You might think that I'm a 'silly man' for trying to inject a bit of humour into a comment I had made but fortunately I'm a very patient and tolerant man, which is why on this occassion I'll allow your insulting comments remain on the message board because you are a recently joined forum member.
Block capitals within forum comments are regarded as shouting, please refrain from using block capitals for that purpose in future.
Furthermore, please don't try to submit insulting or rude personal remarks about me or any forum member in future or I will not hesitate to moderate your postings and your membership status may be affected.

WoodlandsCamper · Sep 27, 2016

rcpilot said:
Woodlands Camper could you tell me the make and model of your tv please.

I bought it from Amazon details here. It had a sticker on the front saying 'CELLO', which I believe is a UK make.

Edit - there are 436 reviews on the TV, giving it an overall score of 4.4 out of 5.

Another edit - checking back through my records we placed the order in June 2015 and the item was supplied from 'The PC Customiser' through Amazon.

rcpilot · Sep 27, 2016

Have just checked your tv it is a 12v and a 240v one which comes with a 12v regulated power supply that plugs into a cigarette lighter socket, there are many led TV's that have an external transformer - regulator that plug into a 240v socket and people often make the mistake that if they connect those TV's straight up to 12v, without a regulator, they have a 12v tv not the case and can damage them so good one on you. I was mainly pointing to those special caravan tvs made by AVTEX they are so expensive

WoodlandsCamper · Sep 27, 2016

Yes, our TV plugs into the 12v dc cigarette lighter type socket in the van.

20170602yuanyuan · Jun 2, 2017

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