Solar power

[beckyboo]

Hi all my wife and I are converting a lwb transit , electricity wise we need to run a small fridge and extraction fan , led lighting and some sockets to charge a laptop and mobile phone could anyone please give us advice on a decent solar power system and how many watts would be needed e.g 100 / 200watts + thank you very much .

[Darren]

This varies depending on the power of the appliances you wish to use.
As a general rule I would say this

1. Install at least 2 leisure batteries, as a 12v fridge will use a fair bit of power, as 1 battery wont be enough. You might want to consider 3 batteries if you will use the laptop a lot.
2. Install a batter-to-battery charger, or split charge relay to ensure the leisure batteries charge when the engine is running, as this is a much faster charger than solar.
3. Solar panels are fairly cheap now. Get as many as will sensible fit on your roof.

I lived in my vehicle, using a laptop a lot.
I had 3 x leisure batteries and a 12v fridge, 180w of solar.
It was just enough. Sometimes not quite enough.
8 years later I still have the same fridge and solar panels, but have replaced with a single battery as the vehicle is only used occasionally.

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