Solar Panel price

blabley

Hi, Starting to do a camper-van conversion and looking for the best price for a 100/150w panel. Anybody know the best place to go?

It's only going to be a way of keeping the leisure batteries topped up, so i may have over spec'd it

From what Google is telling me the price here is massive compare to the UK, i know the Euro is bad at the mo but...

Cheers,

250W modules are cheap as chips if you wanna go 24V. Stick a second truck alternator in her and the rest is easy.

blabley

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

250W modules are cheap as chips if you wanna go 24V. Stick a second truck alternator in her and the rest is easy.

Cheers over here also! ;-)
Hadn't thought of that, per watt they seem to be cheaper but i'm thinking I only really need 100 or less tbh, not finalised the electric to be able to calculator what i need...

freddyuk

You will NOT need less than 100wp. If you have a fridge you will need 200wp. If you use high voltage panel then use a decent (proper) MPPT controller.

100W is a good size for float service. If you only use it on weekends and your batteries can see you through you could get away with 50W. No point going lower they're more expensive and a bit weedy.

As a rough guide a module gives you 3 times it's rating a day in watt hours on a cloudy day and 6 times on a sunny day for most of the year flat mount.
So Spring to Autumn you generally get at least 25Ah from a 100W module.

A 100W will only trickle charge in Winter you need another charging source to charge the batteries if you cycle them.

Remember to over-spec the wiring and controller to expand later then it's a simple job to connect one module to another for an upgrade.
As Freddy says you'd want to budget another 360Wh/30Ah a day to run a compressor fridge. If it's an absorption or thermo-electric fridge forget about it.

Beenlost123

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

250W modules are cheap as chips if you wanna go 24V. Stick a second truck alternator in her and the rest is easy.

Could you point out a decent brand or place to buy these modules?

Also, do you have any experience with mounting these solar panels on top of your van discreetly so they arent visible from the ground?

Beenlost123

Beenlost123 wrote: »

Could you point out a decent brand or place to buy these modules?

They're rated so I just go with the cheapest mono or poly modules I can find. You don't need MCS approval so that'll maybe save you a few beer tokens.

I aim for a VOC battery end of charge voltage + 2V for wiring losses and as many amps as I can get.

Beenlost123 wrote: »

Also, do you have any experience with mounting these solar panels on top of your van discreetly so they aren't visible from the ground?

Here's one of QG's old 36cell modules powering this post.



Black for stealth in most circumstances. Unless the vehicle is white then white obviously.
I made the supporting box from ali chequer-plate, brackets rivets pipe clamps and UPC window slides.

The ubiquitous corner block & mid-module support blocks for flat mounting are discrete enough. It'd often take a discerning eye to notice.

Sir Liamalot

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

250W modules are cheap as chips if you wanna go 24V. Stick a second truck alternator in her and the rest is easy.

Beenlost123 wrote: »

Could you point out a decent brand or place to buy these modules?

This is an expedition/live-aboard setup.
Most cheaper by the watt grid tie modules (72 cell) suit 24V PWM systems. Running 24V modules on a 12V system is making half the power redundant unless you invoke MPPT which is more expensive than 2 (36 cell) 12volt modules.



Pretty effective if it's worth the fitment. Light on PV with one module for a compressor fridge. One week - 10 day range I expect in poor solar conditions.
The cable is spec-ed to 600Wp PV, if the solar cable from the roof to the controller was 6mm² it'd be upgradable to 720Wp.
A gas fridge while not economic would reduce the requirement for battery in half with indefinite range 9 months a year provided other fuels for cooking and heating.

It'll run a 1.2kVA inverter maybe stretch to 1.5kVA intermittent 2.5kVA surge.
Inverters aren't very efficient or necessary in motorhomes I think. You can do a lot with DC PSUs and gas.

Beenlost123

Youre amazing. Thank you. Ill post pics when I get them.