I fitted my own solar panel. It's not a difficult task. I made some aluminium angle frames and bolted them to the sides of the panel so thet the foot of the frames would leave a 15mm gap under the sides of the panel to allow for air circulation, and stuck the whole lot to the roof with sikaflex. I then used a plastic quadrant, the type used to seal round a bath to fill the gap under the panel front to stop winds getting under there while travelling.
I mounted this over the top of the wardrobe, which is wear the battery charger is mounted and run the wires through the roof, down some trunking to the voltage regulator and onto the outlet of the charger which in turn connects through heavy duty cable to the battery.
Solar panels are available from about £1 per watt now which is a lot less than I paid for mine. I recently changed the charge controller from the cheap Chinese one to a more expensive one that allows me to charge two batteries and monitor the voltage and charge in each, along with the voltage and output of the solar panel. Apparently a cheap regulator can waste a large amount of the power produced by the solar panel.
If you want any advise on fitting the solar panel, I would be happy to advise.
To be clear, SMD refers to Surface Mounted Diodes. This means the yellowy looking chips that stand just proud of the main body of the lamp, as opposed to the "Bubble" type led's encapsulated in little glass bubbles.
Buying Surface mounted diode LED's, is NO guarantee of better quality, there are cheap SMD LED all over ebay.
What IS important, is that they are REGULATED SMD L.E.D's
When using lighting in your Motorhome or Caravan (or boat) the L.E.D's MUST be able to operate at MORE than 12v DC.
This is because a fully charged battery is 12.7 Volts, and can get as high as 14v when charging your leisure batteries.
L.E.D's that state they are 12v DC will quickly fail at higher (or lower) voltages than 12v DC.
Buy SMD L.E.D's that are regulated! That is, they will operate from for example, at 10-30v DC, these will last 10 times as long as a typical 12v DC L.E.D in a leisure vehicle, and, whilst a little more expensive, offer far greater reliability. Stay away from the false economy of 12v DC only bulbs. Jacksons Leisure do a fine range of 10-30v DC bulbs, and seem to be the cheapest on the web...with a 2 year warranty!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Converting Bulb Lighting to 12v SMD LEDs
