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We use the 13watt Maplin Solar breifcase one on rallies. We find that in the summer it keeps up with our usage of the battery provided we are not silly. It will certainly give us a few light in the evening and run the water pump without a problem. Earlier in the year, I wanted to test what it was giving us. With the battery disconnected and the solar panel connected to the battery terminals instead of the battery I was able to run 2 striplights or 1 striplight and the water pump.

Given that in the summer we get more hours of daylight to recharge the battery than we have were we want to run the lights then by my reckoning we should manage indefinately with our 85aH battery and the solar panel.

This time of year, I don't even bother connecting it up as it doesn't have a hope of keeping up with demand.

If you want to watch a TV, especially if you use an inverter to do it then you will flatten your battery withing a couple of hours and to keep up with that sort of demand you will need to spend a fortune on a solar panel.

The solar breifcase from Maplin is one of their products that often comes up on offer and can vary from £50 to £100 depending on when you buy it.

If you rally through the winter then most people will take a generator, even if they don't use it. If you do end up with no power, a generator will get you out of trouble and as I say, most people on a rally field will have one and you will get no objections with most centres.

Thanks you very  much for your advice, it is much appreciated.  It sounds good, we don't run a telly but do use lap tops and camera battery charges which it sounds as though it would be ideal for.

Thanks again to you both.  We will certainly shop around.

Have a look here http://www.1carpc.co.uk/wcdr/new-page-2.htm , vwalan is right about the cloudy days i had 3 in a row while on a non electric site and at the end of the 3rd day our battery was getting pretty low ( low battery warning alarm on inverter ) .
You can now get a 40watt panel for £110 on ebay Click_here ( these are the people i bought from ).

atb

Wizard

We found in our current caravan the halogen lights are using a lot of electricity; we are planning to change them to LED's. We have had our solar panel for many years and found that TV etc also drains the battery quicker than the solar panel can charge it.

We have only used 12 v TV's , not an inverter but you still need to be  aware as some yuse more power that you think!

J

Thanks again everybody for your replies.  The links are very useful as is all the information supplied to us.  We will be thinking more about it before we purchase but your comments will be really helpful.  Thanks again

Thanks for the feed back and link.  It would be interesting to know how you get on in October with it.  Hope you will post the results.

Thanks for your help