Solar

Power for free, well almost!

Solar is going to play an important role in our future plans to tour extensively through Europe, we plan to wild camp as much as possible so a reliable, efficient and powerful system would be required.

I have read many articles, both in papers and on the web, regarding how best to choose a system and how big it should be, for me it was more a case of how to eke out as much capacity with a limited roof space, I also had to address the need to charge both 12 and 24v battery banks.

Why 24v? Well if you read the article on my inverter installation it will all become clear.

Space was at a premium on the roof, with skylights to the front, rear and side I was limited as to how large a panel I could fit. 24v meant I would need two panels wired in series to give a high enough voltage to charge 24v. Once measured and panels bought it was time to address the ridged roof, not ideal for attaching flat panels to!

I chose to use aluminium rectangular box section to help provide a level flat plain to mount the panels, I was able to fit two 80 watt panels down the length of the available space.

The aluminium section raises the panels and provides a supply of air underneath as well as lifting the panels to reduce the effects of shading from the roof light and awning cassette.

I as yet have not drilled a big hole through the roof, I am not sure yet how I am going to configure the wiring for the two MPPT controllers I have fitted, one for the 24v inverter batteries and one for the 12v habitation batteries. I want to make them selectable and have not made up my mind yet on how best to do it, I also have a thing about drilling holes in the roof.

As a temporary solution I have placed an Anderson style plug on the roof, I open the roof light and run an extension cable into the van and connect it to whichever battery bank I want to charge, both MPPT controllers have a matching Anderson style socket attached the the PV input.

Not so good in the rain, but not much sun then either!