What set up would you have?

[obanvanman]

Help please.
I am going to start almost from scratch and have solar installed.
I say almost because I have already put in 2 new Varta Lfd 90 leisure batteries.
We do stay on sites but whilst in France and Spain have been doing more wilding.
I have an 8mtr van with lots of space/weight available.
Would want a system that also charges the engine battery.
So...
What size do you recommend?
What are the best type?
Which controller etc?

Basically, if you were me, what set up would you have?

Finally..the Mrs would never sleep again if I installed this so who would you recommend to install it. Unfortunately I will not be venturing down to deepest darkest Taunton this time, so somewhere on the east coast if possible.
Thanks. Kevin.

 

[mitzimad]

i have the same batteries and 180w of solar and it works fine for us it 3 months in spain november to febuary last year .It will depend on how much power you consume and where you are and time of year

 

[obanvanman]

Thanks. We don't use that much. Need the tablets charged, hot water for shower/washing insyead of using gas would be helpful, couple of lights on in the evening and then a couple of hours of Tele, that's about it really.
Winter we spend on a site with hook up and the rest of the time has been in the sun, where we can find it, in Spain, Portugal, Italy etc.

 

[funflair]

There is a big difference between charging tablets and a couple of lights vs heating water,

My not very clever calculation says that to raise 20 litres of water by 50 deg C would consume around 48 ah from your batteries so that would be 50% of your 2 x 100 ah battery bank, then you need to put all that back in again and whilst 180 watts mentioned above would be fine for keeping up with the lights and charging tablets scenario it would be pushing it for the water heating, it could be done ideally with a bit/lot more solar and a healthy understanding of what you are doing and reliable sunshine.

I would also add that a good MPPT controller would be a good investment, possibly a Votronic duo as that will charge both habitation and starter.

Martin

PS if anybody wants to check my maths that is OK with me

 

[TerryL]

Two leisure batteries is always the best start. More if you've got the room and payload but two is normally enough.

Then as much solar as you can get on the roof - we find 100w adequate with a little care but the pundits say 300w is a goodly amount. +2 for a good MPPT controller.

Next a Battery Master - it's a little gizmo that once the leisure batteries are full diverts a trickle charge to the vehicle battery. Cheap, and a doddle to fit, just 3 simple connections.

Then if you're feeling flush a battery-to-battery charger which tricks the alternator into putting lots of power into the leisure batteries quickly, the better ones also having 8-programme cycles that maintain them in top condition. A half hour can get depleted batteries back to a healthy capacity, even just running the engine (although I'd only do that in an emergency).

Although I'm not particularly keen on them a small inverter to take anything that you can't use 12v for. Lastly a couple of extra 12v sockets, cig lighter or USB, around the van.

Remember always use gas for heating/hot water, it's much more efficient and saves your batteries.

We've run that setup now for around 6 years and have never even got close to being powerless.

P.S. before you do anything else, change all your light fittings to LED if you haven't already done so. It's amazing how much juice they use.

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[tonyidle]

Once you have, as @Terry says, decent battery capacity the only limits to how much solar you should have are: the roof space available for it; the size of your wallet. You simply cannot have too much.

 

[autorouter]

PS if anybody wants to check my maths that is OK with me

Sorry, couldn't resist checking . 1 litre of water requires 1.16 watt-hours of energy to heat it by 1 degree C. (4186 Joules (watt-seconds) is 4186/3600 = 1.162 watt-hours.)
20 litres heated by 50 degrees C will require 20 x 50 x 1.16 = 1160 watt-hours, which is 1160/12 = 97 amp-hours of battery power.

I think you'd be needing over 300 watts of solar panel to harvest that amount of solar energy in one day. Water heating takes huge amounts of power, which is why most motorhomes use gas.

 

[pandas]

Last A Class 1 x leisure battery 100w solar panel worked a treat for 6 years with a trickle feeding the engine battery as well.
Really depends on how you motorhome - we are never more than 4 days away from being hooked up.
This A class 2 leisure batteries, 150w solar and we have LED's and I am told we should be okay for 10 days - not sure I would like to try that! As long as you have a good gas supply that covers off the fridge, hob, heating and hot water what else are you going to use the power for? also tops up the batteries when in storage as long as not undercover!

 

[Nasher]

Buy a generator (you know you want to)

 

[eddie]

Help please.
I am going to start almost from scratch and have solar installed.
I say almost because I have already put in 2 new Varta Lfd 90 leisure batteries.
We do stay on sites but whilst in France and Spain have been doing more wilding.
I have an 8mtr van with lots of space/weight available.
Would want a system that also charges the engine battery.
So...
What size do you recommend?
What are the best type?
Which controller etc?

Basically, if you were me, what set up would you have?

Finally..the Mrs would never sleep again if I installed this so who would you recommend to install it. Unfortunately I will not be venturing down to deepest darkest Taunton this time, so somewhere on the east coast if possible.
Thanks. Kevin.

As many panels as you can fit, not wired in series (only benefits the installers)
As good quality regulator as you can get, we favour Victron
MPPT which is better making more from less
A Battery Master to trickle charge the engine battery, better than a dual battery regulator as you will still get a maintenance charge to cope with the quiescent drain on the engine battery when there is little or no solar activity

Or buy a generator

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[two]

Don't use batteries for heating. Use gas.
I used to have solar but have not added them to my latest van, due to weight. If you keep moving and your 'leccy demands are modest, you'll find you don't need solar. It's only when you remain stationary for several days that the batteries will start to drain.
I'd suggest that you wait and see.