|
 Topic: Solar - fixed or portable?
|
  |
Message posted by Monty1509/2/2022 at 3:04pm
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524 Location: London
Joined: 17/9/2015
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
|
Monty15
Platinum Member 
Forum Posts: 1264
| Site Reviews Total: | 1 |
|
| Site Reviews 2022: | 0  |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 1  |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2022: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 6 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
Taking account of your diverse needs, simple answer is it's not feasible to be 'universal'.
The large 50W flexible panels are intended for a fixed installation and supplying a fairly high capacity leisure battery. They are relatively light for their size/capacity, but not really robust enough for regular 'backpacking' without some additional rigid protection, and personally as an experienced hill walker I wouldn't want to be carrying anything near that fragile/unwieldy into the wilds! Highly unlikely you would need 50W output when hiking unless you had some high capacity battery packs to charge, and you really wouldn't want to be carrying even the much lighter weight Lithium packs very far!
Tent camping and caravaning can share equipment to a degree IF you are car based, and your limitation is largely what you can cram in the car, but backpack camping brings a whole different set of rules into play, it's all about minimalism and lightness, otherwise your burden will stop you walking very far (unless you're super fit ex military/SAS type!).
The roll up type panels are fine for minimalist power demands, charging phone, sat nav devices and maybe a rechargeable torch/lantern, but you'd likely not want to burden yourself with any more gadgets on both bulk and weight point of view if you are hiking any distance and on difficult terrain. Also bear in mind if not leaving a 'base camp' set up with panel set up and equipment charging, you will want to use the panel when actually hiking to take advantage of the sun, absolutely no good breaking it out at the end of the day when setting up new camp, or returning to established camp effectively when the sun is setting! Don't forget, you will want to have, phone and sat nav device with you when hiking, and it will take many hours for a solar panel to charge a device, possible all day if cloudy!
A roll up type solar panel can obviously be used in a caravan for charging phones etc., but in the grander scheme of things looks a little pointless when you have large leisure batteries and car batteries at your disposal.
For caravan use if going off grid (no EHU) then a 50W panel is really far too small, you need at the very least 100w, but ideally more like 200W. You've got to take into account that panels only output about half their rated power, only work for a few hours a day in the highest sun, and tend not to work very well at all in heavy cloud and duller 'winter' months of the year where sun is very limited and very low in the sky.
Think you really need to do some research on solar panels, far beyond the glossy sales pitches, but more about their technology and use. And I may be miss-reading you, but I'm guessing you are not a terribly experienced hiker/backpack camper either, not wishing to be the slightest bit rude/insulting, but a bit more research into that may not go amiss, hill walking is one of my passions for many years, but I have encountered far too many ill-equipped/ill-prepared people out in the wilds, and not to put too fine a point on it, they are in trouble and need assistance, probably not too far off a call to mountain rescue!
|
Message posted by Monty1509/2/2022 at 5:07pm
Outfit: Lunar Cosmos 524 Location: London
Joined: 17/9/2015
View Profile
Reply
Quote
|
|
Monty15
Platinum Member
Forum Posts: 1264
| Site Reviews Total: | 1 |
|
| Site Reviews 2022: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2021: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2020: | 0 |
| Site Reviews 2019: | 1 |
| Site Reviews 2018: | 0 |
|
| Site Nights 2022: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2021: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2020: | 0 |
| Site Nights 2019: | 6 |
| Site Nights 2018: | 0 |
|
Quote: Originally posted by james-owen on 09/2/2022
.....
I presume I am being too generous on my expectations of the 'flexible' label then?
.....
In that application, 'flexible' generally refers to a 2mm or so thick aluminium panel with 'flexible plastic' covered solar elements stuck to it in a very thin construction of maybe 4mm or so overall thickness, giving a SLIGHT bend-ability intended to follow something like the gentle curvature of a caravan roof, and permanently affixed with large area application adhesive.
There are some smaller panels that are all plastic construction, they are 'rollable' into a tube, but I've only seen low wattage ones.
'Normal' solar panels are a sandwich construction with plate glass on both back and front faces and a robust aluminium frame probably around 30mm or more thick, and not the slightest hint of flexibility, usually affixed by stand-off cradle/brackets on corners/ends that allow the curvature of caravan roof to clear the underside of the panel!
The flexible panels are not as long lived, despite their often premium price, as the plastic coating degrades and allows water ingress after time. For a permanent fixing, the rigid panels are the best option all round, with one exception, they are relatively heavy so that has to be taken into account when considering acceptable loads on a caravan roof.
|
|
More research is certainly needed.
