Folding solar panel (1 Viewer)

[motorhomewave]

I have been debating with myself for the past year as to the benifits of solar panels. My eco personality say's they must be a good thing, my practical side thinks they won't do much good unless you line the MH roof with them, install six in line leisure batteries and all the safety gubbins that goes with them. Can someone tell me if I buy a 30w folding panel attach it to the battery and palce it in the cab front window, will it supply enough power to run a standard fridge/small freezer and a bit of tv for a couple of days ?

 

[savantuk]

Hi,

I couldn't give you chapter and verse, but I would suspect not - not nearly enough.

I expect Hilldweller (Brian) will be along shortly to give you the answer why.

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

I have been debating with myself for the past year as to the benifits of solar panels. My eco personality say's they must be a good thing, my practical side thinks they won't do much good unless you line the MH roof with them, install six in line leisure batteries and all the safety gubbins that goes with them. Can someone tell me if I buy a 30w folding panel attach it to the battery and palce it in the cab front window, will it supply enough power to run a standard fridge/small freezer and a bit of tv for a couple of days ?

Could you not run your fridge freezer on gas? That's what we do.
We have 1 large solar panel ( Fixed to the roof ) and 2 Trojan batteries , which are meant to be more powerful than normal leisure ones . So far , touch wood , they are proving to be just that.
I cant get technical , as Ralph sees to all that side , but I'm sure someone will come along later who can
We manage perfectly well for long weekends. Thats with the tv and the 3 kids and all there electrical gubbins. Ralph has swapped all the light bulbs to the energy saving led ones , so that will help power use . I dont use the extractor fan on the cooker , as that uses lots of power , and we have Webasto diesel heating.
We do have a Honda a 10i if we know we arnt going to have hook up for a few days , just incase .
I also have a good travel hairdryer and travel ceramic hair straighteners or wouldn't do it :Blush:
Bev

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[imprint]

How large, please, Bev?

 

[Wildman]

Hi, sorry I wish you could. Firstly you do not run any appliance direct from a solar panel because the voltage is 17.5 -20Volts as needed to charge a battery. Secondly most of the year 30W will only produce milliamps, sufficient to maintain natural wastage but not to produce any useable power. Lasting a few days is a matter of conserving battery power, maybe adding more batteries. Changing light bulbs for LED's and switching things off when not needed. To produce useable amounts of power you need large panels, at least 80W plus sufficient batteries to store the generated power.