Solar Panels
- Thread starter RayL
- Start date
Damian
Moderator
It s a bit like asking how long is a piece of string !
It depends on what size of panel you have and more crucially, how much sunshine it will get where It is located.
It depends on what size of panel you have and more crucially, how much sunshine it will get where It is located.
Mel
Moderator
Damn good question Ray. Had not thought of this. Our new van has a solar panel (never had one before) and is in storage ( never done this before). Clearly from Damian's reply the amount of topped up ness will depend on sunshine falling on the roof; but is it safe to assume that something will be going into the battery? That would be comforting.
Mel
Mel
A friend asked me to take his cavavan for a service in Early December, as he is working in Switzerland, it is a Bailey Valencia, 2014 with the solar panel. Unused for 5 months, Stored on his driveway. I used the motor mover for 15 minutes, with no problems, his battery is 3 years old, from his previous van. I wqs impressed.
My Coachmans handbook states that a battery in storage should last 6 months !!!!!! without charging. I wonder whos make that is. I have once gone 4 month withought charging mine and it was down to 10 volts.
Hutch
My Coachmans handbook states that a battery in storage should last 6 months !!!!!! without charging. I wonder whos make that is. I have once gone 4 month withought charging mine and it was down to 10 volts.
Hutch
There are solutions, but as implied the panel, its location re sun-fall, and the van/battery's drains all have to stack up correctly. A puny solar panel tucked behind a window with a van featuring a tracker or alarm is not going to.
I helped a friend with a new Coachman that drained its battery quickly sort out a solar charger. The solution was to place a 100 Watt panel outside near vertical in a spot that got direct sun for as long as possible in winter. It works, but I believe so would a 60 Watt have done so. The price difference between the 60 and 100 Watt panels was so small not to warrant the risk.
In winter the light is often poor from weather, the sun is always low so trees cast long shadows and the light falling on a horizontal panel is far from ideal. Basically the panel if horizontal is relying on reflected light from clouds, it works though the yield is much lower than from direct square on sunlight. The panel needs to be as free of shadow fall as possible so mounted up out of vegetation like long grass or weeds. Also the low sun effectively means the sun passes round quickly, so place the panel so it optimises the sun angle at about midday.
As we move towards Spring the Summer and the Fall then the yields from solar panels in the UK increase massively. Hence the need in winter to go for every bit you can gather, as there is so little there to catch.
I helped a friend with a new Coachman that drained its battery quickly sort out a solar charger. The solution was to place a 100 Watt panel outside near vertical in a spot that got direct sun for as long as possible in winter. It works, but I believe so would a 60 Watt have done so. The price difference between the 60 and 100 Watt panels was so small not to warrant the risk.
In winter the light is often poor from weather, the sun is always low so trees cast long shadows and the light falling on a horizontal panel is far from ideal. Basically the panel if horizontal is relying on reflected light from clouds, it works though the yield is much lower than from direct square on sunlight. The panel needs to be as free of shadow fall as possible so mounted up out of vegetation like long grass or weeds. Also the low sun effectively means the sun passes round quickly, so place the panel so it optimises the sun angle at about midday.
As we move towards Spring the Summer and the Fall then the yields from solar panels in the UK increase massively. Hence the need in winter to go for every bit you can gather, as there is so little there to catch.
We have a 80 Watt Solar panel fitted on our Coachman, last winter it kept the battery charged at over 13 volts, this was checked by the onboard metre and my multimetre, both readings were similar, they are very useful if you keep your van in storage as we do, on our previous van we had a Phantom Tracker that drained the battery in 10 to 14 days so we had to bring the battery home for charging for 24 hours and then take it back to refit it, a real pain, as we had to go to the storage to check more often than we wanted, no battery, no Phantom, no insurance
Mel
Moderator
I can only speak form experience of trackers in cars. There is indeed a separate battery for the tracker, but this is kept charged by the leisure battery. Its the same with alarm systems in cars, caravans and at home. Hence the desire to keep the leisure battery topped up by solar power.
I had the same problem on my last Coachman 545 VIP, the phantom tracker would " Alert " Phanton every other week, at a caravan show I confronted Phantom about this and they reset the voltage settings inside the unit , in the caravan, remotly, " By Magic" and I didnt have a problem again. And the leisure battery in the van never ran down for the next year until I changed the caravan, for a new Coachman 560, which does not have a tracker on it. So possibly a problem with the tracker units. ????
Hutch.
Hutch.
Th are 2 types of trackers in the caravans, both have internal batteries , but 1 is also connected to the 12v supply to keep it active but if power lost then switches to the internal to keep the unit active.
The standalone units have an internal battery that isn't charged so when it fails its a unit replacement.This means it can be placed anywhere in the van as not dependent of a supply.Battery life varies.
The standalone units have an internal battery that isn't charged so when it fails its a unit replacement.This means it can be placed anywhere in the van as not dependent of a supply.Battery life varies.
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