The wonderful thing about solar power is not necessarily that it’s free coz it isn’t, exactly. No the best thing about it is that when you have it fitted and have paid for it (the reference to it not being free) you get to stare endlessly at the digital LED display telling you how clever you were to get it fitted in the first place. Your cleverness is displayed in Amps or Watts of power going into your leisure batteries as the deficit in amp hours from last night’s consumption goes down. Based on this scale, at the present time, I’m pretty damned clever! By midday when the batteries are fully charged again I’ll be Einstein!
As I write, with the laptop plugged into the inverter and various other devices charging off the batteries via various cigarette lighter sockets and other notional drains we are charging at a rate of 3.5 amps and the deficit is down from 17.5 a/h at 07.30 to 13.9 a/h 09.30 and the sun is only, I guess, at around 20 degrees above the horizon, the horizon being a big hill to the east of us. The sky is currently being crossed by a succession of clouds being driven by a moderate breeze from the south west.
Deciding on a supplier and which route we went down was, as with all things we have had bolted onto the Squeakster, a matter of some debate and compromise. The debate centred on weight, cost and efficiency. We opted for a rigid panel as we were told by many sources that these were more efficient, the trade-off is weight with the flexible panels being around 6 kilo’s lighter. We did, later, attend a Motorhome show before we left England and there was an exhibitor who was demonstrating a new type of flexible panel which worked over a far larger range of frequencies and the demo was very convincing however I don’t have the knowledge to comment further.
We ended up having the system fitted by a company near Brighton called Sunstore. They were extremely helpful and reasonably priced. We turned up on the appointed day, Tom measured the available space on the roof and cheerfully informed us that he could squeeze on a 260W panel. We also asked to have another leisure battery fitted. On test the original was not holding up too well so on Toms advice we had two new leisure batteries fitted.
In a discussion earlier in the year, my mate Kevin described a solar panel as like a funnel collecting rainwater. He was considering having another fitted to double his current (excuse the pun) 100W solar capacity. I likened my plans to have a second leisure battery fitted as having two buckets to collect the water, you get the picture. Trade off 25kg… gulp, heavy old bucket!
We also had a Battery combiner fitted (B to B). This enables us to link the leisure batteries to the engine battery should this ever struggle to start the engine. We had Sunstore fit some other bits and pieces too, including an 800W inverter purchased elsewhere (Tom does sell a range of inverters) and the MiFi and booster we had previously purchased from Motorhome WiFi. (Internet connectivity will be a separate post).
We were extremely impressed with Tom and Sunstore and are happy to recommend them unreservedly. Tel: 01903 213141 Email: info@sunstore.co.uk
We decided to stay overnight the night before so we didn’t have to brave the M25 in the morning and stayed the following night to allow adhesive, sealants to cure fully before we made the jump to light speed. We stayed at a very lovely site a few miles from Sunstore. Coastal Caravan Park. 131 Sea Rd, BN16 1PD. Email: coastalcaravanpark@gmail.com Tel: 01903 366170 or 07976 928734. The site is right on the beach, really good for bracing walks and swimming etc. The site is rather small though so contact them in advance. The owner is fab and very laid back. My bad, I can’t remember her name. Memory like a sieve and all that…
News From The Front Line 