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16/7/2014 at 3:49pm
Location: Midlands
Outfit: Mondeo Avondale Gram
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Because its only 120watts. at peak power in full sunshine.
Also solar panels are not designed to run appliances. They are there to charge a battery and need a regulator to maintain the correct voltage because they produce spikes and not a constant voltage.
The most heat your going to get get from a battery is the heat you get off a couple of bulbs.
Same with the fridge it uses a lot of power. You can only run them on 12v with the vehicles engine running.
If you had a 500w panel and full sun 24 hours your maybe able to run a fridge.
Run the fridge and heating on gas with no hookup.
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17/7/2014 at 9:24am
Location: Australia
Outfit: None Entered
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We use solar panels to keep our second batteries charged.
You can power a compressor fridge and L.E.D.lights indefinitely,if you have enough sunlight. 120amp panels are more than enough. Google Redarc.
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If there's no camping in heaven. I'm not going!
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17/7/2014 at 10:19am
Location: Huddersfield
Outfit: swift conqueror 645+jeep commander
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We have a hundred watt panel mounted on the roof
In theory this should have an output of 8 amps However the best we have ever had 2.89 amps This could be because its mounted flat (not the best position) or the sun moves
It does however provide an excellent back up for our motor mover while in storage
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17/7/2014 at 1:49pm
Location: Devon
Outfit: Cabanon Malawi 2.0
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As others have said, the solar panel is wired to charge the leisure battery. The fridge is on a different circuit (wired to the towing vehicle battery) and the heating runs on gas or (sometimes) mains. So neither the fridge nor heating can be run from the solar panel.
As spinyeel points out, the only exception to the above is that some compressor fridges are efficient enough to run from a leisure battery circuit. However, these are not usually fitted as standard to caravans, which usually have power-hungry absorption fridges.
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17/7/2014 at 5:08pm
Location: Bolton Lancs
Outfit: Bailey Orion 430-4 & Mitsubishi PHEV
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Caravan heaters are either gas or 230v mains with power settings between 500W and 2000W. Caravan fridges are either gas or 230v from the caravan systems OR 12v FROM THE TOW VEHICLE WHEN THE ENGINE IS RUNNING.
When the sun is out and your solar panel is in perfect alignment, the best you can hope for is 120W. You wouldn't try to heat the caravan with 2 60W lamps would you? Not that you need the heating when the sun is out! At night when you need the heating, the output from the solar panel will be zero, nothing, zilch.
Most British summer days, with the panel flat on the roof you will be getting around 80W out of your panel
The best you can really hope for is to put a bit back in the battery during the day to power your lights/tv during the evening
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18/7/2014 at 3:30am
Location: North Wales
Outfit: Trigano 575tc coachman laser 590-5
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we brought a 100w suitcase type panel from fleabay and used it on our hols,, 10 days in Gwyndd a week or so ago,, we had 2 batteries,, 75/110Ah and we used pumps, tv, sat box, lights, phone charger, etc,, quite a lot too, and not once did we even get close to running out of power,, quite impressed with how much the solar panel actually gathered during the day :)
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20/7/2014 at 11:20pm
Location: Oxford
Outfit: helsport Kongsvold
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Quote: Originally posted by geoff+emmy on 17/7/2014
We have a hundred watt panel mounted on the roof
In theory this should have an output of 8 amps However the best we have ever had 2.89 amps This could be because its mounted flat (not the best position) or the sun moves
It does however provide an excellent back up for our motor mover while in storage
really? my 40w panel was sometimes running at up to 2.5 amps
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Topic: solar panel
