LG wrote on Apr 10
th, 2013 at 11:00pm:
Derek...
a friend said to me today that he is planning to use 4x 80w solar panels on his caravan - to run a few led lights and a fridge. I thought it sounded a bit 'over the top' but wasn't sure. Then read your post about 100w being enough.
I have a 50 litre Waeco in the back of the truck that runs off a 130 amp hour deep cycle battery. It runs nothing else. When the car us running the battery charges off the alternator but when sitting the solar panel kicks in. The panel as said is 100 watts and pumps in quite a bit of power. (Doesn't work inside the shed
)
My caravan has two deep cycle batteries with a combined capacity of 230 ah and I have 150 watts of solar on the caravan roof to charge them. These batteries run all the lights, electric toilet, water pump, range hood, toilet and bathroom exhaust fans, TV/DVD player, stereo system. My caravan fridge runs on gas unless I am plugged into 240 power.
When deciding on how much power you need to look at what amp hours all of your appliances are going to draw then look at a battery with sufficient battery power to cope and solar panels that will put back those amp hours.
On the caravan with clear sunny skies I find the solar has fully recharged all that I have taken out of the batteries overnight by around 11.00 am. Also remember solar will charge while you are driving.
With your friend, it would depend on how big the fridge is as to how big he needs to go. I know people with big fridges in caravans and have up to 600 watts of solar power and battery systems of similar sizes. Mind you they also use an inverter to run washing machines, bread baking machines, coffee machines and microwaves,
Like jclures said, you can't have too much
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