installing solar power in a westy

[LeeME3]

On this particular controller the 'load' is a readout of the load one can connect directly to the controller itself (eg into a 12v socket) which is a separate output to the battery charge output. At the time the photo was taken there would have been a load on my leisure circuit (stereo and fridge I suspect).

[Gord72]

Well it's all hooked up and working a treat Baird 100w panel with control unit and LCD screen, I got a little excited when it all lit up ha ha thanks for the info guys I've tried to add pictures but I don't know how on my iPad

[LeeME3]

Glad your sorted - I spent the weekend at Van Jamboree...first time I've been camping with the second panel in place...mixture of sun and clouds and I was parked more to avoid the wind than catch the sun! Fridge, stereo, LED lighting, 150W inverter (with a 50w load on it) and several iphones etc charging at various times and my batteries never dropped below 12.2v!

I think the ain advantage of the second panel to be honest though is that I'll get something on a cloudy day where in the past I perhaps wasn't generating enough to get the voltage overhead needed to push a charge.

[lloydy]

what sort of battery bank are you guys running? Only asking as i have 160ah, and no solar. I can get to a campsite on a friday evening and leave sunday afternoon, in that period i run a compressor fridge, lights, stereo, charging 4 peoples phones and my charge will be at or over 12.2v at the end.

[Adeybruce]

Sorted out some time on Sunday evening to change the routing of my solar cables on top on my Westy roof. I managed to slip away un-noticed to B&Q to pick up some grab adhesive - having spent an age riffling through their selection and working out if it 'had to be' Sikaflex (which they didn't have) whilst googling for wisdom on the phone. In the end I grabbed one and went. Got home, drilled some holes in the roof, rushing before the rains came, and cracked the tube of gloop - only to find I had picked up the chocolatey, turd brown colour by mistake. Arrrgh!

[LeeME3]

Yep my battery bank is 2 x 88Ah and I get similar performance over a weekend - the point of the solar for me is to be basically never need a hook up. I do weekend camping in winter (when clearly solar is not as effective - although surprisingly good on those cold clear sharp days) and up to 2 weeks in summer.

Obviously a lot depends on how you load your fridge how cold you like it how often you open it etc as the fridge consumption is dwarfing the other stuff!

[Ian and Lins]

Here's some wiring pics of my Westy

Inside the closet Black wires on right from Panel, wires in the two middle holes are to battery, portable panel plug and the fuse box. Wires on the left are to the Propex Thermostat.



Wires passing over water tank. I drilled two holes with a forstner bit to allow room for all the wires.



Wires in the center storage compartment and to the back of the fridge. I know its a rats nest of wires but going behind that wall didn't seem practical and they are out of the way.



Some great work there Tim. I hope you don't think this is a 'pop' at your work but I'd put a few rubber grommets in the holes.

Two of the three house batteries under the sink



Aux fuse box

[Ian and Lins]

Sorry, my comment got a bit lost in the quote. Just saying that from past experience (built my own kit car and motorcycles) I'd put in rubber grommets where wiring goes through panels. Great thread and all very cleverly thought out.

[ninja.turtle007]

Good sun but there was a little cloud. This was with the panel on the roof so again there is a little more to be had. The most I saw was 9.4A.

[carthago ian]

Thanks to all who have posted their knowledge and experience it has helped me greatly with my solar panel & battery setup, tested the system with fridge running for 4 days , had the radio on for most of the day too, all worked well .

[jed the spread]

Had a day yesterday on my new install.

I was concerned that although the solar panels were low to protect them, wind drag and all that kind of shizzle that was in mind when setting them a bit lower I decided to just notched them up flush to the top of the rack to make the most of them because it was bugging me. Due to past experience I did have in my mind that if they were on the roof a shadow might be cast across them at very low sun light in the winter or the midnight sun up north in the summer from the protection bar and front wind deflector. I stripped everything back today and started again with some stuff I had fabricated to inch things up a little on the removable sit in the sun panels.

Fabricated brackets for our cargo rail,



Just showing how our different size threaded inserts work on our rail. As you tighten the nut down the washer locks into the rail. It has a thousand and one applications.





Bracket fitted in place to hold one side of one panel so the panel is now flush with the top of the rack and still protected by the side rails,



A slightly different view to see the panels fitted with the quick release centre wing nuts so you don't need tools to take them off. That said you can add a tool nut or secretary nut if you have no faith in the human race.





From the back wondering what I can tuck under the panels. The hight of the panels and the designed area means that the Westy roof skylight can still operate as it should so anything ticked either side should allow for this. The kit will come with an extra section that you can fill in if you don't have a Westy



Front end..



Side bit,



Wing nut off ready to take off and position on the ground for maximum whammy!



When the roof is down/tin top etc.. angling a panel ether side for maximum performance,



When removed in the ground position when the van is parked in the shade,



Fishes in place to feed the solar cable through when it arrives so all cable is fed through the rack frame and not on the outside,






I am 100% happy with the install now and as it just can't get any better than this and now the basic platform is made I can start to think about some fun stuff.

While talking with Solar Guru Huw Matthews recently he was telling me about when he has done property solar instals and that there is not much point if the property has 6 halogen down lighters in each room. I have had this in my mind for a while and although I have changed my Festoon bulbs to CVC low draw ones the tube lights must use a fair bit, especially in the winter when the nights draw in early. I wasn't really happy with some of the LED tube replacements or hacks that have been around and I have been working with an electronics company quite a bit over the last year or so and they have made me a unique set of strip light replacement bulbs. They have been debugged so they stay the same brightness all of the time and they give an even nicer defused light that is just a bit brighter than the standard bulbs. These will save heaps of power when off grid for sure.







Jed

[carthago ian]

Hi all,

I, m not long back home from a fine trip to Scotland, Arran, Mull, my set up allowed me to wild camp when required, or use camp sites that didn't
have 240 v available. The set up as follows a 130w flexible solar kit from Photonic Universe, X2 Bosch L5 silver 90ah, a Weaco CR50 fridge,
the charging of Kindle fire, phones & MP3,s Nano was down to a Blue seal USB duel charger. Oh all lighting changed to LEDs

I watching the output readings for the 1st day, the voltage sat around 14.2 during the day, around 12.5 in the morning , fridge set at 5 ,radio on, stuff getting charged , after that I looked once a day maybe, no change from the 1st days readings .My longest time not being hooked up was 6 days, I did drive the camper but not too far most an hour.

Hope this helps any one thinking of solar panels

[ninja.turtle007]

I didn't fancy having the controller on display as it was quite bulky and would mean I would have to drill holes in the face if the furniture. Instead I have installed a volt and ammeter and used the existing hole from the previous Eber timer.

All checked and reads pretty much bob on.

[lloydy]

Has anyone thought about using a folding suitcase panel? Looks ideal for camping in the shade, and putting the panel in the sun. They come in a bag, have 5M of cable and have the solar controller built onto them.
Was thinking, put an Anderson connector on the end of the cable and similar on the battery end. Then should be easy to attach/detach?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Biard-80-100- ... 58aedad03f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[kevtherev]

Yes that did cross my mind, but a few things went against it.
The panel is not permanently out sunrise to sun down, storage, tidiness, being low to the ground things might get in the rays way, damage from feral children, nickable.