Roof mounted solar panels

[thedoog1]

Hi, we have been recommended to have one fitted. Are they worth the money we have been quoted £400 fitted.
We store our van on our drive and i like the idea of not having to keep it connected to the electric. We were told by a dealer that Lunar chargers were not the best.

Steve

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

Unless you are powering an alarm at a remote storage site then why bother, an expensive waste of money? 😉 Do you do off-grid vanning?

 

[Gabsgrandad]

I agree with WC, we used to use a solar panel upto about 15 years ago when we were 90% of the time off mains. A free standing unit and yes it did help alot, not the biggest. But since we stopped non facilities rallying it's been in the garage. We store at home so first job when we have manoeuvred it into position (motor movered) is connect the 'umbilical' cord and charge up again. In fact when we bought this van we looked at several dealer specials (same model) but dealers had different fittings for similar prices. All but one had a roof mounted solar panel which for 2 reasons we didn't want, weight, and not needed. (plus the fact if we had wanted one - it wasn't big enough 80 watt - would have wanted at least 110 if we had wanted one.) Only one of the dealers could offer me an option an Omni vent instead of the panel, took it. I would have been carting around the country a heavy piece of kit we didn't need or use.

 

[Martin24]

We have a 100w roof mounted panel. It keeps the battery topped up ready to motor move around the compound at any time . Until I needed the wheelchair charging each night we never stayed on sites with ehu and so recouped the outlay very quickly, our site fees never more than £6 per night. Very handy still for the occasional weekend rally. We keep considering and inverter for charging the wheelchair and then again no need for ehu.

Before having roof mounted we spent many years with a 55w freestanding panel. Much cheaper but have to move around for the sun a bit more. More efficient though as at a 45 degree angle rather than flat on the roof.

Have used both methods without ehu all year round and often for 3 or 4 weeks at a time with no issues.

 

[thedoog1]

We like the idea of not having to rely on hookup. With the cost of pitches now we are using cls more, but would have more choice if not having rely on hook ups.
We were also told not to leave the van connected at home all the time as the battery will suffer.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Doog
I roof mounted and hard wired my solar panel almost three years ago, it's not a difficult job for a competent D-I-Y er.
Solar technology has moved on since I bought ours, and it's become much cheaper too. You can buy a 12v 120w semi flexible solar panel which will save on weight from E-bay for £140, the controller and additional solar and automotive flex would probably be another 100 quid, so you'd make a considerable saving if you did the job yourself.
Click Here for a bit of info with pictures from when I did mineClick Here, a semi-flexible would probably be a bit easier and if you want any help give me a shout 😉

 

[thedoog1]

Thanks Parksy, but if i decide to go ahead i will use my local mobile caravan engineer. I dont like the idea of cutting holes in a new van, and me and electric do not see eye to eye.
Do you use an inverter or all 12v electricals.

 

[WoodlandsCamper]

We have a 100w roof mounted panel. It keeps the battery topped up ready to motor move around the compound at any time .

We take the battery out of the van (when in storage) and keep it in the garage at home, giving a boost charge every now and again. I guess you are saving your OH from needing to lift it in and out of the van? 🙂

 

[Parksy]

Thanks Parksy, but if i decide to go ahead i will use my local mobile caravan engineer. I dont like the idea of cutting holes in a new van, and me and electric do not see eye to eye.
Do you use an inverter or all 12v electricals.

Our solar panel is only 80 watt, we use it in the summer months when we have the occasional weekend off grid at music festivals or wartime weekends to maintain the charge in the leisure battery.
We have used an inverter very occasionally for the tv, but it's used more to power my LED flagpole lights and to keep the water, toilet flush and radio going because at these events we never watch much tv.
At least there's some comeback if a caravan engineer gets it wrong, our caravan was almost out of warranty when I did mine.

 

[Martin24]

Got to help the ole girl out where I can 😉

It saved us an absolute fortune.

We had everything 12V worked fine. Only thing we did was change any lights we used to LED.

Our workshop charged me £350. Went straight there when we collected the van. Dealer when we bought the van wanted £495!!!

 

[BryanTheSnail]

We have for years used a 60w movable panel which goes to Temp Holiday sites, or stays at home when planning to be on grid. Use everything at 12 volts if we can including TV. Remember that with inverter, 15% minimum loss from 12v to 230 v, then losses again to get back down to Electronics voltages in the TV or phone chargers etc. Why incur at least two sets of losses if you can stick to 12 volt appliances.

Worked for us for stays of a month or more even in poor weather.

 

[chrisn7]

You can buy solar panel kits via ebay that comprise the panel, controller, wiring (the proper stuff), and mounting brackets, which is an economical way to buy whatever panel size you require. I elected to buy the kit but pay my approved workshop to bond the brackets to the caravan roof (for safety reasons). This was the only work they did as I did the wiring myself, like Parksy, which makes it far cheaper than the price you have been quoted.

It may not be necessary to drill holes in the roof - I was able to run my cables through an existing moulding cut out in the Heiki rooflight but that option may not be available.