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Subject Topic: 80W Solar Panel - good enough?
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PersonSamP
08/3/2018 at 9:38pm
 Location: S Wales The Badland
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I hope someone here has some practical experience with this question.

We're in the process of buying a new van* which comes with an 80W solar panel on the roof.
Other fitted items include an alarm & a tracker.

Given our splendid UK weather & distance from the equator, is an 80W panel feeding energy into the battery, likely to come anywhere close to replacing the energy drained out of that battery over the winter months?

Let's assume we start with a fully charged 100AH battery in (say) late November & hope to survive 'til March without damaging the battery.

The van is not kept at home & there's no mains electricity available there.

* Swift Challenger

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SamP


Personboff
08/3/2018 at 10:25pm
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Yes


PersonWebmaster
08/3/2018 at 10:42pm
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Yes , it should easily keep up with the alarm and tracker I'd say , drain from those won't be much.

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PersonProspector
09/3/2018 at 9:12am
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Yes, no problem.

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Paul


Personchrisn7
09/3/2018 at 1:55pm
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This is one of those persistent tales that solar doesn't work in the winter - it does.

I put a datalogger in to monitor the battery voltage,and there is a very slight drop off in the hours of darkness. Top up is soon restored however. Big plus is not having to remove the battery and charge it every few weeks.


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Personboff
09/3/2018 at 2:44pm
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Yes: You don’t get that much output from a roof mounted panel in winter. I know when I checked ours over a New year. The voltage didn’t start to lift until after nine and by about 2:30pm the sun had dropped so low that it was striking the panel. But an alarm, and tracker requires very little and even under those conditions it should still keep the battery topped up.

In winter if we go for a weekend non ehu, the panel won’t keep the battery fully charged, but the battery won’t be completely flat. By the next week if we go out on consecutive the battery is fully charged.


PersonGrampian91
09/3/2018 at 8:01pm
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As long as you have a good battery that doesn't have a high self discharge rate.


PersonSamP
10/3/2018 at 1:51am
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Quote: Originally posted by chrisn7 on 09/3/2018
This is one of those persistent tales that solar doesn't work in the winter - it does.


No it isn't. I spelt out the basis for my question.

The solar panel is putting energy into the battery, whilst the alarm & tracker are taking energy out.

My question related to the balance of those two processes over a UK winter.

Thanks to all for your help with this.


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SamP


PersonPaul_B
10/3/2018 at 9:27am
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Sam it should do,
provided the caravan is in a position where it can get sun, mine isn't as its in the shade from nearby houses and the winter clouds exclude a lot of light so I have to charge the battery every now and then.
Its ok now as the sun is higher in the sky and over the houses.
A solar panels voltage will remain pretty much constant no matter what season or weather, but the charging power (watts/amps) will be much lower when out of full sun.

I would check the battery every now and then for peace of mind.


PersonDebbie T
10/3/2018 at 10:04am
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I had an 80 watt fitted panel last year to run the tracker and alarm as our van is kept in storage. It does the job fine.I have an app on my phone that checks the battery level. My van is out in the open,not shaded by trees or anything.Hope this helps.

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Debbie.


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PersonSGThomas
10/3/2018 at 10:16am
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This is purely an acadaemic question as I don't have a solar panel, store in my garage connected to mains electricity and use ehu when touring.

If you have a fixed panel on the roof of the caravan; to what extent would the efficiency of the panel reduce if there was a winter cover on the van?

Obviously some UV and IR would get through but probably far too little


PersonLlaniDavis
10/3/2018 at 12:12pm
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If the panel is covered it won't work. It requires SUNLIGHT.


PersonSGThomas
10/3/2018 at 1:30pm
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Sunlight comprises more than just the visible spectrum of light and photovoltaic cells also process UV and IR rays.

So obviously when covered, what we see, the visible spectrum, will not work. But will what we are not seeing , invisible spectrum, be of any use?


PersonWebmaster
10/3/2018 at 1:37pm
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No

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PersonSGThomas
10/3/2018 at 1:38pm
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Thanks


PersonPixie_Hez
10/3/2018 at 4:55pm
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We haven't had any problems with our 80w solar panel keeping the battery topped up over the last few weeks.   I check the levels on an App a couple of times a week and they never seem to go down so we are very happy.

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Pixie



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