Roof solar panels worthwhile?

[pvsdb]

I'm having to run my Ducato Bessacarr E460 every 7-10 days to avoid low charge. Are solars the answer? Any installers recommended in Scotland? How much roughly should I pay? Thanks for any advice.

 

[suavecarve]

I would take a look here

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and do it yourself. Its not overly difficult and numerous videos on youtube to help out

best of luck

 

[stevewagner]

Not much use in winter but worth it for the rest of the year. Also if you are running it make sure you take it for a good run so that it reaches normal operating temperatur, as idling can cause long term damage.

 

[mitzimad]

there a must have for us, not a difficult diy job if your that way inclined im sure theres a thousand how to's on u tube

 

[Otter Spotter]

I'm having to run my Ducato Bessacarr E460 every 7-10 days to avoid low charge. Are solars the answer? Any installers recommended in Scotland? How much roughly should I pay? Thanks for any advice.

When you say run, do you mean idling the engine whilst staying parked? If so change to taking the van for a drive for 20/40mins and get it up to 50mph plus and leave it in 3rd gear to let the DPF filter heat up enough to burn off the crud.
Re Solar, yes get a 80w to 100w panel with a decent controller, Victron are good, this will feed a little power into your battery in winter and let you run off grid for a night or two during summer.
expect to pay £250 to £300 for both together.

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[Ian Bosman]

When you say run, do you mean idling the engine whilst staying parked? If so change to taking the van for a drive for 20/40mins and get it up to 50mph plus and leave it in 3rd gear to let the DPF filter hears up enough to burn off the crud.
Re Solar, yes get a 80w to 100w panel with a decent controller, Victron are good, this will feed a little power into your battery in winter and let you run off grid for a night or two during summer.
expect to pay £250 to £300 for both together.

Certainly, with a 120 watt panel i am able to keep the battery charged but if you have access to mains it is more effective to put it on EHU

 

[two]

Look at the cost of installing solar then determine how much you might spend to have EHU and compare those costs. Even if you get solar, it might not be much help up North or during Winter but anything you can harvest would be at no additional cost.
Another option to consider would be a B2B charger. That would reduce the amount of time you'd need to travel around just for the sake of re-charging your batteries.

 

[Badknee]

We have 3x100 watt panels and even on dull days we get charge into the 2x115ah batteries.

 

[Lenny HB]

We have 300 Watts of solar and 3 x 78ah Gel batteries hardly every use EHU but 400 watts is nowhere near enough for winter in the UK.

As Otter Spotter says take the van for drive never let it idle from cold the engine will never get up to operating temperature which can do a lot of damage.

 

[Gaston aires]

We have 300 Watts of solar and 3 x 78ah Gel batteries hardly every use EHU but 400 watts is nowhere near enough for winter in the UK.

As Otter Spotter says take the van for drive never let it idle from cold the engine will never get up to operating temperature which can do a lot of damage.

A regular trip to Felixstowe for fish n chips does the trick in the winter months.
Phil

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[jumar]

We have 300 Watts of solar and 3 x 78ah Gel batteries hardly every use EHU but 400 watts is nowhere near enough for winter in the UK.

As Otter Spotter says take the van for drive never let it idle from cold the engine will never get up to operating temperature which can do a lot of damage.

GEL, WHY GEL......OK, I've read your posts.....