Solar Panels???

Not sure about those 2 particular suppliers but there are a couple of advertisers on this website who sell solar generation sets for camping - I am not one of them my panels are normally for permanent mounting on vehicles or caravans - Check the directory tag and click on accessories . You may find what you seek .

Rgds

Mandrake

if your stationary camping for ten days the roof-mounted-panels will keep the batteries fresh while every other day or two youll ned to run the car or generator to recharge the batteries....

the consumption of most fridges far outweighs the ability of most panels and budgets to kee stuff charged, unless you've got a coaster-bus roof full of them...

Bart,
First things first, you will need a decent battery system capable of charging fast and holding the power generated by the solar panel/s, I would suggest a 'quality' AGM Deep Cycle battery system, only because of my experience with them.

With solar panels you need to know how efficient they are in *LOW LIGHT* conditions, which is not relevant to their claimed Wattage or Amperage numbers, because you will spend at least some time when it’s not perfect solar conditions, also who will honour the warranty if you need to make a claim.


The easy way to tell you what "is best" for you is to tell you what I use, then you can make the decision that it's either too big or small, based on what will be posted about it, telling you why it’s no good :)

# 203 Watt capacity solar system
# 200 ah AGM Deep Cycle battery system
# 70 Lt Fridge/Freezer - draws ~8 Amps ( 2.8 ah)
# various efficient lights
# Laptop running from inverter
# Coffee maker

I've never seen the AGM's showing below 12v - even first thing in the morning

Maîneÿ . . .

May I recommend reading Collyn Rivers' books on the subject.

He's a "been there, done that" sort of bloke who has a lifetime of experience and expertise in all things "camping".

http://www.caravanandmotorhomebooks.com/

I've never met the man, but read his stuff in print and on various forums.

I think something most people forget, or don't understand, is the AGM battery, when used in a solar system, will never get below 12v at any time, if the system is *specified and set up* correctly.

The lowest voltage the battery will get down to, will be seen early in the morning, before the sun has hit on the panel, the battery voltage at this time will be close to 12v (probably ~12.2v) so the battery will almost never need huge amounts of Amps to get it back to 12.7v or thereabouts, and will then be maintained at a charging voltage of ~13.6v all day, while the solar system is also running the devices attached to the battery, obviously this will depend on the type of solar regulator used.

For optimum performance the solar system should be specified so it can run all devices and also maintain the battery system during the day in full sun.
Using the correct solar regulator will allow for battery equalization in wet cell batteries, something not required in AGM’s.
(this post is not in reply to, or in any way relevant to any previous post)

Maîneÿ . . .