kyocera solar Forums

Dizziblonde

Hi gromett.

I am also attaching myself to this thread.
I have retro fitted our old solar system to our new van, so will be monitoring your posts with a view to improving our system if possible.

We will be over in France also in three weeks, sailing 29th June returning 17th July. Seem to recall you are over at Le Mans, anyway off topic now, so have fun.

Dai.

gromett

Dai,

I am back in the UK due to server problems, dish problem, leaking roof light amongst other things. I got the van too late in the year to do some dry runs prior to going to France and it bit me big time Sad

I am going back in July now.

On the Generator front I succumed to the need of a generator. In France I can't go on hookup because every single site I looked at had trees which prevents my Datastorm connecting Sad

I got a Honday EU20i and if I need to use it I will find a layby in the middle of nowhere and run it until the system is fully charged. I won't do it on aires on near anyone else to avoid the noise disruption which I also really really really hate.

DuaDua,
I do agree, that is another variable to add into the pot so, we have the following so far.

1) Price (flat panels win) (£1700 compared to >£400 for same size)
2) Power output (flat panels win except in case of 4 and 5)
3) Roof space available (tracking panels win)
4) How far north during winter do you go. (trackng panels win)
5) Do you use it much during winter. (tracking panels win)

So I reckon a few rough rules of thumb are.
1) If you only use during the summer go for flat panels unless roof space is an issue.
2) If you stay south of the UK say for example south of france and spain go with flat unless roof space is an issue
3) if you spend all year north I would recommend a bigger battery bank and a genny.
4) If you have limited roof space, stay in the UK or travel north and use during the winter, the tracking panels would be best but I would still have a genny.
5) if cost is an issue then flat panels win.

There are loads more cominations but I reckon the 5 variables above cover all the deciding factors.

If you are like me and go out for extended trips in the summer but only have weekends away in the winter flat panels are cheaper and more efficient. In the winter my big battery bank will last me a week or there abouts. During the summer the solar panels have so far made me autonomous.

Vennwood

Gromett/DuaDua

I hear what you say but think there is still a little bit missing. As you all know I too pondered over the fixed/rotating panel issue and exchanged a few posts with Karl, Sallytrafic and others before finally following Karls route and going with 2 x 130W fixed. I kept referring to Sallytrafic's chart, created a few of my own and came to the conclusion that 260w churning out 14+ amps for a couple of hours either side of midday was much better than either the sunmover or Phenix churning out 5 amps most of the day. If you do the math and use the Sallytrafic chart and even be generous with the rotating panel output, 14 amps for say 4 hours is as good as a 75W churning out max power for 11 hours (all very rough calculations and not very scientific I admit) and anything else churned out during the rest of the day is a bonus. I tried several combinations, permutations etc. but got stuck every time with the issue of 5 amps max versus 14 amps max. But winter etc has still to be proven

Sorry to hear of your problems Karl - hope you get it sorted soon.

sallytrafic · Campsite DB Admin

What about a vertical/near vertical panel for winter use? Not sure of how you would mount one as it would have to be south facing.

Duadua

Duadua

Vennwood

Just re-reading through this thread again and wondered if anyone had any updates since last posting date (June 07) I for one found that during the summer months with 2 x 130w flat panels I had no problems whatsoever. We are off for a couple of months in January and I'll have a better idea of winter use experience then. I have considered adding another panel but can't decide on fixed or rotating. Does anyone have any updates?

TonyLEE

I've been interested to read this thread.

I have a 40' converted bus in Australia and we bush camp full-time so I have a pretty reasonable solar system - 4 x 24V 165W panels plus 520AH at 24V of battery capacity. Normally more than sufficient even though we are very big electricity users and we have fired up our generator in anger only once in the last 10 months.

That will all change in a couple of months because we will be leaving our roomy bus and heading off to Europe/UK for 6 months. We intend purchasing a MH in The Netherlands and leaving it there each year when we return to Australia. Seems like the standard set up is pretty basic with an engine battery and a house battery - connected while the motor is running and I assume there is some sort of battery charger for when hooked up to mains power.

I've been looking at the economics of buying a couple of 130W Kyocera panels and a solar regulator to keep everything topped up and allow us to "wild" camp (have to learn to speak proper English again instead of our bastardised version) and may even bring a 300W sinewave inverter with us to power the laptops and various phone chargers.

This thread has helped put some performance figures on conditions we are likely to strike in Europe.

hektor03

Hi everyone,

I just bought my first M/H a few months ago to take bck to Greece where I live part of the year (Lucky me I know). When I bought it it had two very old panels which turned out to be defective. The dealer replaced them from another van and I set off back through Europe last week. As I was driving everyday I assumed that as there was no sign of any charge going in to my 125A leisure battery, it was because my battery was charged through driving and my frugal use of power whilst parked overnight. However, whilst in south of France for 4 days last week in glorious sunshine and ith a friend in his M/H, I noticed there was nothing going in to my leisure battery and that being parked for 4 days, my battery was well down and needed me to run the engine to boost it (Temp measure as am going to get a generator). My pals solar was working great. So, now I am back in Greece got an electrician at the marina to check it all out and he reports that the 2 x 65W Kyocera panels are not working enough to give charge to the battery! Both were giving 12.4V combined in full sun at 2.30pm, which he says is not enough to charge a battery. I am now stuck with trying to full time, in a great van, beautiful sunshine and I am getting nothing from them and cant understand how this can be. Any clues? I am in conversation with the dealer but he says I am expecting too much..Great answer and you guys are do so well!
Any advice would be welcomed ad thanks in advance