I don't know if there are any boffins amongst us who can advise regards solar power for my caravan. I would like to run a battery charging system which would then allow me to use the low amperage (6A) hookups abroad to run my A/C so I can get some decent shut eye at night.
Having looked at the systems available, they seem a doddle to fit once you know what you're buying. I then went crazy and thought, what If I could generate enough power from the solar system that I could run the A/C whilst driving via an inverter. I also thought about running my TV too without using a hook up at all.
Are there any "experts" out there who can advise what is possible and what is just stupidity?
I've tried to keep my van as up to the minute as possible to make it easy to use as my years advance and off grid stuff could be a bit of extra fun without resorting to a generator.
Thanks in advance.
Huw

You might want to look at a small wind generator, many yachts have them fitted as they give more amps than a solar panel.
Something you pop up on arrival of course.

Not sure about running an A/C off-grid but there are low btu units available that run off 12v.
Wouldn't expect too much from a system like that though.
. Cheers, Greg
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2011 Vogue SE 4.4 with lots of toys in Stornaway

I think that depends on the wind and sun!

Solar panels have gained in efficiency over the years, and depending on how many you can mount and how much suitable surface area you have, you can probably actually get a better amperage off a decent solar array these days, unless you have quite a few windmills dotted around... The windmills also make a very annoying noise!

We have 4 solar panels on our yacht, only about 100W total (small these days, but they've been on there 15 years now!), and on a reasonably sunny day that quite happily puts in a steady 5 amps at 12V during the day, which powers our fridge, navigation equipment, autopilot, etc. I would very happily have more though, you can never have too much power on a boat, and I suspect on a caravan . You'd also need the correct size battery bank to be able to support the load, if you're planning to run things overnight when clearly the solar panels aren't generating charge.

The key is to know/measure how much draw your various appliances are going to take, and add everything up. Assuming you're running a 12V system (or using a inverter from 12V), work out how many watts of solar power you'd need to generate your needs. Obviously remembering that an e.g. 100W solar panel won't actually generate a constant 100W due to inefficiencies, cloud cover, etc., and only works for part of a day, so you'll actually get some fraction of the rated output in 24 hours.

Once you know what solar input you'd need, you can work out from the currently available panel sizes and ratings whether that's possible or not given the available surface area. Would you just cover the roof of a caravan in panels?! My solar setup is 15+years old now, but I've been on plenty of more recent yachts with multiples of our solar capacity, which happily runs all sorts of systems.

I'm not a caravan person, but assume there's similar discussion on caravan forums, and I certainly don't see why it isn't possible to have a reasonable sized solar array to support a reasonable draw during the day directly driven, or using the solar energy to charge an appropriate battery bank for overnight usage.

Forget it, it wont happen.

Consider 6 amp hookup = 1.5Kw. The large panels on house roofs are 250w each so you would need 6 of them to provide the same power as the ehu. Assuming you want this to run overnight you would need over 100, 110 A/h batteries to provide 1.5Kw for 8 hrs.

Go somewhere cooler on holiday! BMW i3 Electric Car
2012 Full Fat RR 4.4 TDV8 (now gone)
2006 VW Touareg 3.0 TDi V6

Never had a problem running my A/C on foreign sites with only 6A, just make sure nothing else is on but I do have my fridge on.

Ian

I didn't get any notifications of your replies. Apologies.
I had an issue last year on lake Como that I could run either the A/C or the battery charger. In this instance I chose to charge during the day and A/C at night but somehow the battery became discharged and the 2500kg van needs lots of power to shift it when it stuck between obstacles like trees etc on the movers. If the solar charging had been fitted it would have overcome this problem. I've since read up on the subject and see that A/C is a no no but tv should be ok. My tv runs at 0.2a or 36w so is minimal draw. I thought I could get an inverter to run the tv if I was on a non electric pitch in this country where the A/C isn't so necessary. I was looking at a 100w solar panel coupled to a MPPT charge controller to recharge the battery. Maybe a second battery fitted in parallel with the charging across the bank for balanced charging. Anyone agree or not with the idea?
Huw