Which solar

[Big Jim]

Are you fedup with all my questions yet ?
Are these any good ? I like the facy they fit flat to the to the roof , may be with velcro 120w £170, 100w £145 . Those rigid ones look very clunky and mustl spoil the great aerodynamics of a demountable .
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 14&alt=web

[zildjian]

No question too stupid, we all started out in the dark not so long back so make the most of our mistakes,

on this particular issue we know someone had same idea on flexible (nothing wrong with that) just the adhesive he employed, (they stripped off by themselves in Devon)
so yes buy those or something like it and I'll send you out some proper adhesive material on a roll thats held on my clunky panels for last few years rain or shine.

[sabconsulting]

I've not tried the flexible panels.

The good thing with that kit is you get all the important stuff - including decent wire and a basic charge controller, which will do the job. The wire is easily overlooked - you'll get voltage drop and lose charging power if you use some old mains wire. There are better controllers available (Maximum Power Point Tracker controllers) but these cost a lot more and you can upgrade to them at a later date if you want to.

Make sure you keep the cable run from panels to controller to battery as short as you practically can, and the charge controller needs to be pretty close to the battery.

Steve.

[derestrictor]

Need a reasonably decent bond, but if its that adhesive backed velcro you were considering it would then be

PV panel
backing
velcro
velcro
backing
roof

might be better to find a good adhesive on reflection

[Gary W]

Are you fedup with all my questions yet ?
Are these any good ? I like the facy they fit flat to the to the roof , may be with velcro 120w £170, 100w £145 . Those rigid ones look very clunky and mustl spoil the great aerodynamics of a demountable .
http://pages.ebay.com/link/?nav=item.vi ... 14&alt=web

Most of the Chinese panels are made in the same factories and branded to suit the buyer. Quality brands have very strict quality standards, lesser brands less so. The good stuff is really good these days, the junk is junk.
The junk should go in the skip but if you look hard enough you might find it on ebay. I have no idea what the quality of the panel in this listing is like, it might be 100% in which case it might be the bargain of a lifetime. Then again it might not be. What you do know is it's a fraction of the price it should be for that spec and that even in China Ruskin's law prevails...

BTW Steve is spot on about MPPT controllers, they make an huge difference and (assuming the panel is any good) are worth the extra cost.

Good luck!

Gary

[Alexd]

Jim what did you decide on the solar kit you found in the end, we are looking at adding solar ourselves when we choose a camper (if it isnt already fitted) and those flexible panels look a great solution

[Big Jim]

I think I would go for flexible . We haven't actually been away in ours yet so as soon as I decide the truck and camper is ok for us I will go ahead . I guess there are better systems , but for what we need I think this will do the job . It is easy to spend loads of cash on this sort of stuff , and hotels start to look like a cheaper option .

[Big Jim]

The 100w flexi panels weigh 3.69 kg compared to around 9kg for the rigid panels . I imagined the flexi would be lighter . Even so what does 5.31 kg saving equate to in beer ?

[horacebat]

We were looking at these at the boat show, and they've been in boats for a long while. I'm honestly not sure I'm going to need them, and we're not likely to be in any one place for very long, so the unit will be moved on a regular basis, hopefully keeping the battery charged.

That said we've not trialled it properly yet, so time will tell.

[zildjian]

A handy way to capture free energy though Paul (once paid for of course) also it means they can maintain the LB over Winter just about untended if camper is stored away from hook up,
yes you can just remove battery of course but it was in my case before a really PITA job and those batteries do't like going flat