Using Solar energy when hooked up?

[Nowti Berti]

Hi there,

We’re hoping for a little bit of advice. We’ve been full-timing for 2 years, living and working from our Knaus motorhome, mainly off grid when work projects allow.

We have a 175w solar panel fitted with our twin leisure batteries and an inverter for emergency laptop charge etc and my (possibly naïve) question is about what we should be doing when on campsites with EHU.

Do people switch off the electric battery charger and allow Solar energy to top up the leisure batteries when on EHU?

It seems more CLs and private campsites are now charging per unit (especially in Europe) and there’s also the green benefit, so it would be great to maximise our solar energy where possible.

We’d love to know what others do.

Many thanks for reading this!

Berti

 

[Revolvor]

If we are on a site with EHU, we use it for the fridge, kettle and toaster, but leave the mains charger switched off, and rely on 200W of solar to charge the batteries.

 

[dunnah01]

The solar will still charge the batteries when on EHU so no need to turn the mains charger off.

 

[poppycamper]

With Revolvor on this one...we rarely use EHU but our mains charger is always off (whether on EHU or not) and let solar take care of battery.

 

[Revolvor]

The solar will still charge the batteries when on EHU so no need to turn the mains charger off.

My mains charger is very basic, but my CTEK Solar Charger is much more intelligent and hopefully looks after my batteries better.

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[pappajohn]

Leave everything on ...solar and mains charger.
When the batteries are charged charging from both sources will be reduced to trickle regardless of which source puts the most charge in.

 

[Off da Grid]

As above if we’re on hookup only use it for the fridge and hot water.
Rarely turn on the charger all year.