I've baught a 6birth motorhome now that I've over come all the little problems I'd like to power the van from solar panels, does anyone have any advice on which one to get that will give me plenty of power to run lights are tv and so on, not sure how big to go for or really much about them so any advice will be greatful thks.
You need to check all your appliances and see how many watts they use.
If they are 12v item them its easier to work out what size panels you need, but if you use an inverter then the power goes up because they can be as little as 60% efficient.
So every 60watts your item uses the inverter will be drawing 100watts from the battery.
Add up every item and a best guess at how many hours each item will be used for, as a safety measure double the figures for anything thats run from an inverter.
So if your going to use say 180watts or 15amps in a 24 hour period you need to work out what time of year you will be camping.
In the summer you may get 6 - 8 hours of decent sun so you have that to put the power back in.
In theory a 30watt panel would be the minimum.
But if your in the UK then you may struggle to get 3 hours of decent sunshine. So you will need at least a 60watt panel.
Increase your usage and you need to add extra storage also. You dont want to draw more than 50% of your battery capacity ideally.
It can soon add up how much power you use, Work out all your interior lighting and see how many watts they use.
Ive changed mine to LED's which consume a lot less power.
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Topic: Which solar panel help
