Solar panels

Lumpy

Lumpy

Joined
Nov 10, 2013
Posts
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Location
Cornwall
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28,973
MH
Van Conversion
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Started in 2013
Just sitting in the shade keeping cool looking at my van conversion baking in the Cornish sun and a thought popped into my head (unusual I know) all the vans batteries are full and nothing switched on in the van so the solar panel is just sitting there doing nothing twiddling it's thumbs waiting for a call from one of the onboard appliances to provide some charge.
Anyway the thought I had was what could be done to use the solar panels free energy while the van is just sitting there awaiting it's next adventure, has anyone put their free energy to good use whilst their van sits at home dormant in the drive!? connected to the household supply in some way (maybe)!!

Ray
 
I have a Votronic solar regulator which has an AES output. When the batteries are charged and there is plenty of solar it sends a signal to the fridges S+ connection and the fridge switches to 12v. It does it on 30min blocks so as not to flatten the batteries.
Just checked, fridge is running on 12v at the moment.
 
Depending on set up, we use the excess for hot water, battery back up (living off grid), and general use of energy for various things. I even used the electric lawnmower of the vans inverter.
 
Much easier would be to fit solar panels to the roof of your house!
In my opinion every new build should have a solar roof
However the cheap solar panels from China have a UK Tariff added to the value, so they become too expensive to import.

The current government stated stance is discourage home produced electricity, hence why they have removed the feed off tariff to reduce the number of solar panels on houses.

They want the electricity to be supplied by the large corporations as the amount of electricity we consume in the UK is about to increase massively as we move away from fossil fuelled central heating and cars over the next 15 years.

Imagine the 'terrible' situation if most homes made their own free electricity!
How would the conglomerates survive ?
Who would pour money into the political party that backed the idea ?

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Lenny HB said:
I have a Votronic solar regulator which has an AES output. When the batteries are charged and there is plenty of solar it sends a signal to the fridges S+ connection and the fridge switches to 12v. It does it on 30min blocks so as not to flatten the batteries.
Just checked, fridge is running on 12v at the moment.
Click to expand...
Lenny HB I have a Votronic controller also connected to EBL but did not realise it did that, what model do you have ours is MPP165 Duo Digital?
 
MichaelT said:
Lenny HB I have a Votronic controller also connected to EBL but did not realise it did that, what model do you have ours is MPP165 Duo Digital?
Click to expand...
I have an MPP 350 Duo I think it's only on the 250, 350 & 430.
 
Looks like I will have to invest in an Inverter to start with.
 
run a lead off the inverter in the trailer into my house and the fridge and freezer run for nothing . tv etc . as and when.
do have a good battery bank in the trailer,mind i am lucky i can park my trailer very close to the house. about 3 foot from my front room window.
unfortunately cant power every thing off the inverter.
mind when away i do use washing machine etc off the inverter. just a small twintub version.
but at home automatic washing then tumble drying is the way. off the mains .
mind come september and not enough sun in uk to really be that useful on my system.
was great when you could load up and disappear across the waters all winter.
but never mind life is only a game we have to play.

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Lenny HB said:
I have a Votronic solar regulator which has an AES output. When the batteries are charged and there is plenty of solar it sends a signal to the fridges S+ connection and the fridge switches to 12v. It does it on 30min blocks so as not to flatten the batteries.
Just checked, fridge is running on 12v at the moment.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be happy to switch to 12V in extremely hot weather.
A 'smarter' system might switch the fridge to an inverter, though.
The reason for my nervousness is that the fridge barely keeps cool on 12V and there's nothing worse than warm beer or curdled milk.
 
I have an Aircon unit in the house, it's an inverter so also provides heat when required. As I have 4kw of solar on my house, I can run my air con unit for free ... Great in this weather!! I am tempted to go for more panels at home, you are limited to 4kw without planning permission, but can go above that with the right set up. As we are on. 3 phase supply and only use 2 phases, I am hoping that the infrastructure is in place for it to go ahead. Didn't realise the feed in tariff had been removed completely for new installations, I just thought the payments were reduced?
 
Brains said:
Much easier would be to fit solar panels to the roof of your house!
In my opinion every new build should have a solar roof
However the cheap solar panels from China have a UK Tariff added to the value, so they become too expensive to import.

The current government stated stance is discourage home produced electricity, hence why they have removed the feed off tariff to reduce the number of solar panels on houses.

They want the electricity to be supplied by the large corporations as the amount of electricity we consume in the UK is about to increase massively as we move away from fossil fuelled central heating and cars over the next 15 years.

Imagine the 'terrible' situation if most homes made their own free electricity!
How would the conglomerates survive ?
Who would pour money into the political party that backed the idea ?
Click to expand...
This is not true. The feed in tariff was removed as the cost of domestic solar panels and invertors plummeted. You can now get a decent system installed for around 5k and the savings you make on reductions of electricity consumed from the grid provides a reasonably short payback. Planning authorities (such as the one I work for), actively encourage PV and other carbon reducing technologies when making an application. very often developers have to include these technologies in order to gain planning permission.
 
vwalan said:
run a lead off the inverter in the trailer into my house and the fridge and freezer run for nothing . tv etc . as and when.
do have a good battery bank in the trailer,mind i am lucky i can park my trailer very close to the house. about 3 foot from my front room window.
unfortunately cant power every thing off the inverter.
mind when away i do use washing machine etc off the inverter. just a small twintub version.
but at home automatic washing then tumble drying is the way. off the mains .
mind come september and not enough sun in uk to really be that useful on my system.
was great when you could load up and disappear across the waters all winter.
but never mind life is only a game we have to play.
Click to expand...
I only have 100w solar (at the moment) with 2x 110 ah batteries and no inverter at the moment, any suggestions on what inverter to use.
 
I fitted a 8 litre water tank with a 300watt 12 volt heater element and the excess solar gives us hot water on tap all day for naught

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I have no idea, I'm just guessing... but does the solar panel capture the sun's energy and therefore stay cooler while it's charging the battery? But I'm guessing it'll warm up like any other object once you stop drawing energy from it?

So dumping excess electricity into random things might actually keep your van cooler?
 
two said:
I wouldn't be happy to switch to 12V in extremely hot weather.
A 'smarter' system might switch the fridge to an inverter, though.
The reason for my nervousness is that the fridge barely keeps cool on 12V and there's nothing worse than warm beer or curdled milk.
Click to expand...
Ours works fine on 12v as I sail does it in ½hour blocks only runs for max of a couple of hours a day on 12v.
 
Raul said:
I even used the electric lawnmower of the vans inverter.
Click to expand...

9E8569C6-5FC4-483D-9883-8020404AF6C8.jpeg
 
i used to run a 2kw inverter but now have 2x1kw inverters .
1 is pure sin wave as i found modern house fridges seem to only run on them.
i use a house fridge freezer in my trailer.
the other inverter works washing machine and other items . its a bit of a game really.
i use ring automotive inverters seem reliable .
do miss the 2kw power sometimes but again just have to live with what i have.
more solar and bigger batteries make life easier.
my first panels were bought in morocco twenty years ago and were second hand even then. later added more new ones , they were brought in from india . internet ebay etc can have very good not expensive ones . compared to twenty years ago they are cheap as chips these days .

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