What solar panel?
Discussion
We have an Eriba caravan to which I have just added an aftermarket 85ah leisure battery which we use with a Maplin (RIP) inverter to provide off-grid power for the on-board water tap, charging a couple of phones, and a bit of interior lighting whilst at music festivals.
Until we run the battery down, I’ve no idea how long a fully-charged battery will last us for this low-level use. I was hoping to get through 5 days, in which case no issue.
Otherwise I am considering a solar charger to keep it topped up. There’s a plethora of panels on the market of varying wattage, I just don’t know what to go for. Some of the bigger panels look great, but are massively obvious to anyone walking past and have no facility to secure them - on festival campgrounds there are a lot of people walking about, I am loathe to leave a couple of hundred quid’s worth of panel sat outside for potential pilferers to walk off with. Securing one to the roof is something I want to avoid if preferable.
At the other end of the scale there are smaller, less obvious portable type panels which could be locked to a leg to prevent this, but are <10 Watts so (I imagine) not really up to the job unless blazing sunshine.
Anyone had this problem, found a good solution? I don’t want to spend a fortune but would like to not be dependent on EHUs.
Until we run the battery down, I’ve no idea how long a fully-charged battery will last us for this low-level use. I was hoping to get through 5 days, in which case no issue.
Otherwise I am considering a solar charger to keep it topped up. There’s a plethora of panels on the market of varying wattage, I just don’t know what to go for. Some of the bigger panels look great, but are massively obvious to anyone walking past and have no facility to secure them - on festival campgrounds there are a lot of people walking about, I am loathe to leave a couple of hundred quid’s worth of panel sat outside for potential pilferers to walk off with. Securing one to the roof is something I want to avoid if preferable.
At the other end of the scale there are smaller, less obvious portable type panels which could be locked to a leg to prevent this, but are <10 Watts so (I imagine) not really up to the job unless blazing sunshine.
Anyone had this problem, found a good solution? I don’t want to spend a fortune but would like to not be dependent on EHUs.
Securing it to the roof doesn’t have to be permanent and definitely doesn’t mean cutting holes if that’s what you are concerned about. There’s some stuff called Sikaflex which is just like a kind of mastic/silicone stuff but is very strong and flexible and works a charm for exactly this use.
A decent 100/120W semi-flexible panel would be about £150-ish at a guess, but you’d also need a solar charge converter which range from £10 to £200! Avoid the cheaper ones as they are not very long lasting, but one for around £50-£75 would be ample.
Photonic Universe are a good brand, but are on the pricier side. Their charge controllers are supposedly infallible though and the quality/effectiveness of that is probably more important than the panel itself.
A decent 100/120W semi-flexible panel would be about £150-ish at a guess, but you’d also need a solar charge converter which range from £10 to £200! Avoid the cheaper ones as they are not very long lasting, but one for around £50-£75 would be ample.
Photonic Universe are a good brand, but are on the pricier side. Their charge controllers are supposedly infallible though and the quality/effectiveness of that is probably more important than the panel itself.
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