Solar powering leisure battery for a camper van help please

[Solar-Burt]

Hi,

Looking for some help working out what I will need to set up a solar panel in my van. I already have a hook up point at the back, has a fuse box eventually ending up with 2 plugs and it powers the tap, cigarette 12v going to a leisure battery. I was wondering how powerful a solar panel I would need to power a small low power tv, music player or laptop and maybe a light? Is it an easy DIY job ? Also are flexible ones any good? Any info/ advice welcome. Thanks for reading

[PNjunction]

Hi Burt - what you'll want to do are the basics: find out how much power those devices use, and how many hours you intend to use them. You can do this by labeling, or by measurements with instruments like multimeters, clamp-on ammeters, kill-a-watt meters. You'll be dealing with watts, amps, and voltages.

Then, you at least DOUBLE that amount to determine the minimum battery capacity size. Then, when taking the solar-insolation for your geographic area into account, which differs from sunrise-to-sunset hours, you can size your panel appropriately.

Check out the faqs and stickies to get the lowdown fast before you spend any money.

[Solar-Burt]

Hi,

Thanks for the info, very helpful I won't be using it much, just to keep the leisure battery topped up really

[Sunking]

Very first thing to do is buy a battery ISOLATOR and charge the battery with your vehicle alternator. Your alternator will do more in 15 minutes that roof full of panels can do in a week at 1/10 the cost. You could have had a V8 and slept at a Holiday Inn

[SunEagle]

Very first thing to do is buy a battery ISOLATOR and charge the battery with your vehicle alternator. Your alternator will do more in 15 minutes that roof full of panels can do in a week at 1/10 the cost. You could have had a V8 and slept at a Holiday Inn

Where the heck did you get those "smilee" faces?

[Sunking]

Where the heck did you get those "smilee" faces?

A couple of places but mainly here.