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Practical Motorhome

GOING SOLAR

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A GUIDE TO SETTING UP YOUR CAMPERVAN SOLAR POWER

Solar power is a practical, renewable and entirely off-grid way of replacing power that your appliances will drain from your batteries. Without it, you will be entirely dependent on either driving regularly to recharge from your engine, or staying on campsites with hook-up.

There are almost no instances in which it doesn’t make sense to fit solar panels.

In this chapter we’ll cover

◼ How to determine your solar power requirements◼ Factors affecting solar panel efficiency◼ What size solar panels you need◼ Panel types◼ Charge controllers◼ Panel mounting◼ Electrical connections◼ Circuit protection – fuses

HOW TO DETERMINE YOUR SOLAR REQUIREMENTS

Use the table in the ‘Electrics’ chapter [pages 126-141 of the book] to determine your power consumption.

Using the example in that chapter, the appliances have a combined usage of about 44 amp hours (Ah) in a 24-hour period. To avoid running the battery down to less than 50% of its capacity, a 90Ah or 100Ah battery would be required, at minimum.

As sunshine cannot be guaranteed, it is well worth considering having 2-3 days of

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