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I can't find the answer to this , but all i want to do is maintain reasonable charge level in the vehicle battery ( so it starts ) and the habitation battery ( because it's good for it ) while the vehicle is in storage . Euramobil on Fiat Ducato with 105 amp hour leisure battery , if that makes a difference .
I just have a doubt that the unfolding small briefcase type on the dashboard will do the job .
Thanks in advance
I would say a 20watt panel would do the job your looking for, but if you want a fitted one to the roof i would recommend a slightly bigger one around 40watt. You would need a regulator that splits the charge or you could manually swap them over, or a battery master.
Phil
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I agree, a folding panel during the winter will not be enough to maintain both leisure and starter batteries + self leakage and alarm and traka loads.
I normally advise that the minimum size panel to sustain one during the summer is 80 watt and this will also do the maintenance requirements during winter lay up. For just winter lay up I would not suggest anything less than 40 watt, so you might as well have the 80 watt and it will be usefull in the summer!
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I tried some small panels ie 20 - 40 and still kept going down on a Hymer and also on an Adria then I swapped to a 100 on the Adria and that sorted it no problems full all year round.
So personally I think the answer is "How long is a piece of string" it all depends on what is draining power and by how much.
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Les
I have a 14w folding briefcase one to keep ours charged, it faces due South and is angled to a reasonable angle. It seems to keep both batteries topped up OK........
Maybe I'm lucky with where it is placed - it is in an open car park facing due South and with no trees to restrict sunlight falling onto it.
That's my experience,
it may well not be technically proper but it works!
Yep its all about how much current is been drawn off the batteries, in my case for example, from the leasure batteries there' about 200mA and from the main battery about the same 200mA in the standby state, so I would say as big a pannel as you can get fixed on the roof, so far during the winter, there's very little sun/light to produce electricity and I have noticed some days there's no more than 500mA being produced and only over 5 hours (using two 120watt pannels) so the maths come into play, its a different matter if you don't have anything conected to the batteries... just worth thinking about...
One problem with the small panels on the dashboard is the solar glass. Cuts the input down to about half on my Transit! But that is what it supposed to do!
I am fiddling with this problem at the moment. What is annoying is that the alarm and tracker should only take about 1 AmpHour per day (40mA) but my battery goes down much quicker.
Probably a 20Watt on the roof would be absolute minimum in winter to keep the vehicle battery ok. If the leisure battery is effectively "no load" then it should only need a tiny input.
If you do have adequate solar then connecting the two batteries together using Clive's fused link should keep them both charged.
What seems important is NEVER let a lead acid go flat. Once is too often and you have probably knackered it for holding long term charge.
I can only emphasise what others have said that before you go down the solar route you must understand and have the battery loads measured (by you or for you).
This is important whether you are sizing a solar system for normal use or one to keep the battery charged when you are not using it
The first part of my solar system article >here< will help I am sure.
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You cannot easilly measure battery internal self leakage and this changes dramatically with battery age and battery temperature. So if you do the maths as suggested you should also factor in a good allowance for those discharge currents you cannot measure.
If you really want to measure self leakage just measure the time it takes the fully charged battery to go flat with the terminals disconnected.
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Our thoughts are with you Chris and Graham. Fighting with Mavis and Ray 
