[P @ F]

Now it would appear that the above link can be relied upon , its exactly what i was told by the nutty proffesor type guy in the electrical shop i first went in , as little as 1 hour of usable sun on a winter day , this guy has had the same shop in my town for at least 30 years !
I think he is past the sell anything to anybody point , he is there purely to sell people what they need , i trust him .

He told me from the outset that i would need 100w for summer and 200w in the winter to stand a chance of being off grid so to speak .
I have been taking the battery out for 12 years daily , so i can carry on .
For me its more of an access issue lately , parking at my house is getting mental , i used to fill up easy , these days im up to 30m of layflat just to fill up , i have even been forced into having static systems at the front and back of my house , 800 IBC at the front and 450 tank at the back !

[P @ F]

See look , mine is the little white van in the distance 
Its getting a chore now 

[Den68]

Bloody hell, no wonder you wanted solar to work.  I only have to roll out a extension lead a few feet as I have my own drive just shows how spoilt I and lucky I am.

[nathankaye]

Nathan , how long have you been using that same battery with the panels ?

Good question!
I learnt the hard way. I didnt use the control box or regulator when I first started using the panel on top of the van and after say 4 or 5 months the battery wasnt holding its charge for as long as I thought it should. Thats when I looked a little deeper into charging batteries and found out above 14.5 or 15 (cant remember actual figure now) you damage the battery. Well I had it in 16's volts often before i realised and disconnected.
So battery was replaced and also a 2nd as a spare.
So ive used this battery with it for about a year now or perhaps longer. (Its a high cycle life battery 110amp)

[nathankaye]

See look , mine is the little white van in the distance 
Its getting a chore now 

Yes but look at that land, can use that for a solar farm.

[Spruce]

I found this interesting.

This guy is living on his long boat and gives you an idea of what solar is doing in the winter months. He has got a couple of large solar panels; 2 x 240 watt. His daily energy needs are much greater than ours but his panel output will fall far short of what we would use a day in winter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44uYIrs1RW0

[Og]

You need one of these on your van!


http://www.btekenergy.com/documents/air_x_400_watt_12v_24v_land_or_marine.html

Charge while you're on the move!

[Spruce]

You need one of these on your van!


http://www.btekenergy.com/documents/air_x_400_watt_12v_24v_land_or_marine.html

Charge while you're on the move!

 

The problem is that some little toe rag will destroy it whilst the van is parked down the road away from his front or back door.

If he is going to charge on the move then a split charge relay/battery to battery charger option is the way forward. I'm not 100% sure, but he still may be able to get away with a split charge relay as those small vans don't have regenerative braking. (I have looked on the manufacturer's van specifications and no mention of regenerative braking is listed as a feature.)

A decent size panel will work in summer, but not in winter according to the no sales related info out there.


.

[mark m]

I tried it but it did not work that well


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MczpSkwTsBw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBETHJCPhiY

[nathankaye]

The boating chaps vid was an interesting watch. Thankfully i use mine just to keep topping up a 12v 110ah battery being drained by a sureflow 5lpm pump which is what 3-6ah (lost front sheet of the pump) and thats if its flat out everybhour which we know it aint. Walking between jobs or moving van up the street for instance.
Though i do like his pivets for the panel, i might see about copying that idea.

Anyway its a cloudy and wet day today so did another quick video to show if it effects my work....not mentioned how many houses ive done in this hour to safe from any petty arguements so apply the imformation to what you would do in the hour;

https://youtu.be/BuUZW_ggR5c
https://youtu.be/C0TjD_PWBYo

After taking this vid i did one more house before packing up to move van further up the street. After doing the house the reading was;


But ive now been sat in van for 25mins uploading the vids to youtube and wasting some time on here as well. So im sure it will show atleast 13.
Anyway i can do a little vid when i knock off for the day, but thats if you want me to do so, let me know so im not wasting my time. Cheers guys

[Den68]

Thanks for posting the narrow boat video very informative.

Nathan I would be interested to see what your battery reads first thing in the morning before the solar panels are connected.

[nathankaye]

Thanks for posting the narrow boat video very informative.

Nathan I would be interested to see what your battery reads first thing in the morning before the solar panels are connected.

Yep can do. Once ive finished work i do keep the large panel connected. I only disconnect it when im working during the day and can keep a check on voltage but come evening it will be a slow trickle charge not enough for me to overly worry about, but yes i can post a quick shot of it.

[Den68]

Ok I see what you mean, I have a split charge relay and was told to check my controller at least 3 hours after the engine as stopped for the battery to settled down to give an accurate reading that's why I was curious to see what your battery reading would be after no input charge, but in your case in theory your battery will still be charging even if the charge is tiny if that makes sense.

[nathankaye]

Well what the heck, ive done one anyway haha i know it bores you so can always watch em if struggling to sleep 😂

So a slightly later finish of 4.30 today as its my collecting night, so might as well work a little later. Also cleaned a conny roof using hot pure as well.
Used about 400ltrs outbof 500 today for pump usage (rather than saying how many houses etc)  clouds dispersed around 12ish and its been a sunny but cloudy day for rest of the day.
Still kept the little panel on however.
So this is the results;

https://youtu.be/tGpxL1uMijw

[windowswashed]

Best solution is to use MPPT rather than PWM. Best to use 48 watt (4 x 12v batteries linked together) 250w mono crystalline panel rather than photovoltaic as it gives more output. Whatever your amps you require ....quadruple it for the british winter times and you should be fine except for the additional weight you put on your roof and the extra weight of the batteries. It's feesible if you can allow for the extra weight. Don't use flexible solar panels unless you plan on leaving a gap underneaththem and even then they don't have a reputation for lasting as long as the rigid frame solar panels.

[Solar Steve]

Just a couple of things to bear in mind:

1.  Shading from ladders will massively reduce your output.
2. How will you know if your set up is 'fire safe'?
3. Think about security and vandalism. Panels get nicked and smashed often.

I'm not saying don't do it. I'm a massive green energy advocate. But you need to think about the above.

[nathankaye]

Thanks for posting the narrow boat video very informative.

Nathan I would be interested to see what your battery reads first thing in the morning before the solar panels are connected.

Sorry Dan forgot to post this the other morning. So i took this before start of work this morning.

[Den68]

Thanks for posting .