Solar panels (1 Viewer)

geoff1947

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May 20, 2008
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Are free standing solar panels worth it as we like staying on Aires etc when travelling broad??? if so any recommendations etc::bigsmile:
 

Geo

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Jul 29, 2007
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Autotrail Tracker FB
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45 +years with breaks
Yes they work better/more efficiant than the fixed sort as you can face them directly to the sun all day
No particular make, they all work 80 watt min to get any real benefit. 40 watt will keep batteries topped up with carfeull useage
The biggest you can/want to spend on the better
But there no good without somewhere to store all the power there making, what batteries do you have at present
geo
 

Snowbird

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Apr 24, 2009
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I agree with Geo,solars do work better when pointed directly to the sun.
The downside is that you have to move them every couple of hours to gain advantage of this, also the security aspect of having a few hundred pounds worth of solar panel sitting on the ground waiting for some scroat to walk off with them.
I know you can chain them to the van but have seen a very heavy chain bolt cropped and an expensive genny take flight in the night as RR will testify.

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blokarter

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Feb 21, 2011
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No doubt, moving panels aroud to follow the sun is getting the most out of them but it isn't everyones idea of fun if they are on holiday.

I am using a 120w roof mounted panel & two Elecsol 110amh batteries.

We have recently tried to give them a hard time by using TV, lights, dvd player, mp3 base station, FTA box as we would on hook up.

The result was 5 days before we noticed the first thing, a slight difference to the toilet flush power. Out State of charge had dropped to 11.6 volt.

This was in a reasonable sunny period in Ireland.

I hope this might help
 

GJH

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Aug 20, 2007
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We have a 50W freestanding panel and 110aH battery.

We were away 12 days using just the panel in April and 17 days using the panel apart from 5 days on EHU during May/June and had no problems at all.

We were charging netbook, e-readers etc from the panel as well as keeping the leisure battery topped up. Between the two trips I fitted a CAK Tanks Battery Charge Manager so the panel kept the starter battery topped up on the second trip as well.
 

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