I've discovered that as long as you put more into your batteries than you take out everything works fine regardless of the time of year
So rather than concentrate on the things I have no control over ie. the amount of light falling on my
solar panels at any given time I'd rather concentrate on the things I can control ie. the amount of power I use. With that in mind you have to prioritise things and everyone will have different priorities, and for me the most important thing anytime of the year is to be warm (I don't hesitate to put the heater on even in August and I already have a few times) so I will put the heater on rather than watch a few hours of Netflix but I prefer to do both so I look for alternative ways to watch Netflix. I use a USB rechargeable Apeman projector with an Anker Soundbar and recharge them in the day or when I'm driving along, as an added bonus this gives me an 39" screen to watch on. I also look for anything else that can be used on 5v USB so I can use an Anker
battery pack to power them if needed, again I'll charge the
battery pack while on the move. I started out full time last October with 300W of
solar and a four year old 130ah
battery which didn't last too long. So at the December Moffat meet I ordered 2 x 100ah lithiums which Alpha delivered to the Frog and with the help of Phil and the generosity of a couple of other members got them fitted along with a
Victron battery monitor delivered by Amazon to the local post office, I managed okay with this set up through the rest of the winter, then came the lockdown. So we self isolated in the van on my son's drive and with his help (well I actually helped him,
) we measured the roof area and filled it up with as much
solar as possible and after a telephone consversation with Phil about cable sizes and inverters we fitted a
Victron inverter. All this changed the way we used the van during and now after lockdown, Diane can use her hairdryer and we haven't used the gas kettle since but rest assured if I need to cut back on power consumption the gas kettle will be out and Diane's hair will be towel dried but I'll still be nice and warm.
Regards,
Del