It's best to separate the power supply issues from the power storage issues. I hope you won't mnd if I start wth an analogy.
Think of the electicity as water, so the solar panels and charger are filling supplies, the power load is the taps you run and the batteries are the water tank.
You need to find a way to ensure that the water taken out is more than the water put in, unless you want the tank to run dry. The size of the tank only alters how long you can manage between top-ups.
For option 3, there is something to be said to out of season going to a cheap campsite with available hookup once, say, a fortnight and getting a full charge that way? could be less hassle then removing the batteries on a regular basis?It's best to separate the power supply issues from the power storage issues. I hope you won't mnd if I start wth an analogy.
Think of the electicity as water, so the solar panels and charger are filling supplies, the power load is the taps you run and the batteries are the water tank.
You need to find a way to ensure that the water taken out is more than the water put in, unless you want the tank to run dry. The size of the tank only alters how long you can manage between top-ups.
Leaving that anology behind, the situation is even worse, because running a water tank low won't harm it. Running a battery like yours low will reduce its capacity by 1% or more every time it happens. Something you want to avoid!
If your solar panels are providing enough power, the batteries will stay well charged, but seemingly that's not the case. So you have three options:
1. Use less power. Forget the inverter and the microwave. Use gas for heating your food. It's cheaper than ruining your batteries.
2. Improve the solar output. Yes, a good MPPT controller (costing about £70) will increase the solar panel output by maybe as much as 30% but 30% more of almost nothing won't help at this time of year. But it will from Spring to Autumn.
3. Find other charging sources. It sounds like you don't have hookup where you store the van, or this wouldn't be an issue. So the easiest aproach would be to take the LBs out one at a time, take it home and charge it for 48 hours. Repeat with each in turn, maybe starting again in a few weeks.
Missing "not". This new laptop is wonderful and its huge trackpad is great, but sometimes it is easy to "lose" a word when typing.??????
Yes, that might be easier. There is a CL a mile from here where I have left the van for 24 hours to charge up and cycled home (Only cost £5). But now I have extra solar panels in the garden, that's not needed.For option 3, there is something to be said to out of season going to a cheap campsite with available hookup once, say, a fortnight and getting a full charge that way? could be less hassle then removing the batteries on a regular basis?
Nabsim’s going the Voltronic route ,I’m going with ctek, it’ll be good to do a comparison
Well I’ve ordered it all today from RoadPro, we used to have a trade account with them where I used to work but it went dormant, but I managed to get a little discount to helps things out. I’ll do some pics when I get the time to fit it up. I’ll do it when it’s not raining as I need to get on the roof and cover the panels while I’m wiring them up for safety sake
It's just a Sainsburys version with a grill built in, will then heat / cook by both when on combination. He is right about the amount of batteries unless you go for a small manual type, at about 500w, even that will knock your batteries down, that's 50amps as a straight conversion, it would be more than that as the inverter isn't 100% efficient. That is why I would only use it with engine running, not sure what my alternator is I suspect 60-80 amps but I can get a higher output, 160amp for about £100 and fit and upgrade system myself. It will be linked into the liesure battery to smooth out the flow rather than use the liesure battery.Hmm. Which microwave do you have? I discussed having one on inverter with Peter not long before he died, he said the amount of extra LBs made it a bad idea unless you really couldn't survive without one.
Not really. There won't be much power coming off them in rainy weather:.no risk of shock. Of course you should connect the battery before connecting the panels, but there is no safety issueWell I’ve ordered it all today from RoadPro, we used to have a trade account with them where I used to work but it went dormant, but I managed to get a little discount to helps things out. I’ll do some pics when I get the time to fit it up. I’ll do it when it’s not raining as I need to get on the roof and cover the panels while I’m wiring them up for safety sake
Not really. There won't be much power coming off them in rainy weather:.no risk of shock. Of course you should connect the battery before connecting the panels, but there is no safety issue
Having said that, I connect my garden solar controller to four different batteries at different times by simply connecting the Anderson connector to a different one. Never worry about the panels being in sun as I do it. The only thing is that the controller"s clock pauses each time, so after a few swaps it is five minutes slow.
That's an Episolar controller, though. I keep my Votronic as a spare, because the Episolar is better for the job it does here.