I posted this reply to my own thread when I asked all you other Funsters if any of you had had experience of fitting a solar panel to your MoHo. Ours is a ‘62 plate Autotrail Apache 632 with a Sargent EC500 Power Supply Unit and an EC300 controller. I found out how, and installed it..... If anybody has any useful comments or tips or thinks I’ve cocked up somewhere please make sure you reply to this thread!!!!
Well boys n girls I’ve fitted the solar panel. I got it from a supplier in Blackburn, Lancashire. The 120w panel, plastic brackets, grommet box and 4mm 5metre long cables cost £125.
I opened up the Sargent EC500 Power Supply Unit and found that it already had a separate black plastic control box in it for the solar panel. (See black box in upper part of the photo) This had a lit orange LED by a picture indicating a half full battery. There was also a picture for a full/charging battery with an unlit orange LED by it, of which more later.
I attached the panel to the roof with a tube of polyurethane glue/sealant, drilled a 40mm hole in the roof by the T.V. Antenna which is immediately above the EC500 and dropped the wiring through the grommets and sealed the grommet box to the roof with the polyurethane glue. I didn’t connect the extra cables to the terminated flying leads on the solar panel at this stage as I didn’t want to get a shock from the panel whilst wiring it into the EC500.
The black plastic control box on the EC500 had pictorial terminals marked on it for the solar panel + & -, it also had a flimsy pre-wired connector with a red & a black wire attached to the two terminals. The other two terminals were pictorially marked as a battery with + & - signs, these were/are factory connected to terminals on the main EC500 using orange/white trace and white/orange trace wiring and a factory fitted plug/socket marked “solar reg”
I removed the flimsy red & black wiring from the black control box and connected up the, suitably shortened, +ve & -ve wires from the solar panel to the black control box.
I covered the solar panel with the cardboard box it came in, then connected the flying leads from the solar panel to the leads I’d just connected to the black control box in the EC500. (I checked the voltage from the panel using a multimeter before doing this and I was getting 22volts DC with strong sunshine. Hence my earlier caution!!)
I removed the box and went back to the EC500. The orange LED, indicating battery charging, was now the one that was lit. I had previously noted at the EC300 control unit above the habitation door on our Autotrail Apache 632 that the leisure and vehicle batteries were both “good” with 12.7v and 12.5v respectively. They were now showing voltages fluctuating between 13.4v & 13.9v and 12.8v & 13.3v respectively. The weather yesterday was a mix of bright direct sunshine & clouds, the voltages varied up and down for each battery, but never dropped below 12.8v for the leisure and 12.6v for the vehicle battery.
I am sure that the black plastic control box is a PMU type controller and could be replaced by an MPPT type, which is/are allegedly more efficient, but room inside the EC500 is at a premium!
So it looks like job jobbed!
Hope this helps others! You carry out any and alterations to your vehicle completely at your own risk, I won’t take responsibility for your own cockups!!
Cheers! Russ
Well boys n girls I’ve fitted the solar panel. I got it from a supplier in Blackburn, Lancashire. The 120w panel, plastic brackets, grommet box and 4mm 5metre long cables cost £125.
I opened up the Sargent EC500 Power Supply Unit and found that it already had a separate black plastic control box in it for the solar panel. (See black box in upper part of the photo) This had a lit orange LED by a picture indicating a half full battery. There was also a picture for a full/charging battery with an unlit orange LED by it, of which more later.
I attached the panel to the roof with a tube of polyurethane glue/sealant, drilled a 40mm hole in the roof by the T.V. Antenna which is immediately above the EC500 and dropped the wiring through the grommets and sealed the grommet box to the roof with the polyurethane glue. I didn’t connect the extra cables to the terminated flying leads on the solar panel at this stage as I didn’t want to get a shock from the panel whilst wiring it into the EC500.
The black plastic control box on the EC500 had pictorial terminals marked on it for the solar panel + & -, it also had a flimsy pre-wired connector with a red & a black wire attached to the two terminals. The other two terminals were pictorially marked as a battery with + & - signs, these were/are factory connected to terminals on the main EC500 using orange/white trace and white/orange trace wiring and a factory fitted plug/socket marked “solar reg”
I removed the flimsy red & black wiring from the black control box and connected up the, suitably shortened, +ve & -ve wires from the solar panel to the black control box.
I covered the solar panel with the cardboard box it came in, then connected the flying leads from the solar panel to the leads I’d just connected to the black control box in the EC500. (I checked the voltage from the panel using a multimeter before doing this and I was getting 22volts DC with strong sunshine. Hence my earlier caution!!)
I removed the box and went back to the EC500. The orange LED, indicating battery charging, was now the one that was lit. I had previously noted at the EC300 control unit above the habitation door on our Autotrail Apache 632 that the leisure and vehicle batteries were both “good” with 12.7v and 12.5v respectively. They were now showing voltages fluctuating between 13.4v & 13.9v and 12.8v & 13.3v respectively. The weather yesterday was a mix of bright direct sunshine & clouds, the voltages varied up and down for each battery, but never dropped below 12.8v for the leisure and 12.6v for the vehicle battery.
I am sure that the black plastic control box is a PMU type controller and could be replaced by an MPPT type, which is/are allegedly more efficient, but room inside the EC500 is at a premium!
So it looks like job jobbed!
Hope this helps others! You carry out any and alterations to your vehicle completely at your own risk, I won’t take responsibility for your own cockups!!
Cheers! Russ
