Isn't Solar Power Great?

I recently upgraded my 12v electrical system on my tear drop camper.

The battery was only a 60ah deep cycle lead acid battery charged by a 20watt solar panel. The 12v runs the lighting and originally it had two cigarette lighter type sockets in one of which was permanently a USB outlet for the clock.



The problem with this was that it only left one socket for the TV and HDD when I didn't have mains power so I decided to up grade it with a couple of permanent USB sockets each with two outlets (1amp and 2.1amp) plus two 12v outlets. You always need spare USBs for your phone(s) and tablets don't you?



I also added a voltmeter in the cabin so I could keep an eye on the battery state without having to get to the battery compartment. That was a good idea I have to say.

This was all great except that increased the draw on the battery from 0.15 amps to 0.32amps all the time. This is not a major problem except that the camper is in a car port so never sees direct sunlight while it is stored so the battery slowly runs down.

I decided to put an external plug on the camper to add a portable solar panel for when it is not being used while at the same time up grading the onboard panel to 40watts (20watts was quite adequate but you can never have too much and I got it cheap!)



You can see the inlet on the right lower of the box lid with an Anderson plug in it from...



...the recovered 20watt panel and another similar panel I had left over from another project. I just paralleled them up and pop riveted them together.

Now I can put this panel on the car port roof where it is in the sun all day keeping the battery fully charged. Actually it really only needs sunlight part of the day to keep the it fully charged so I find that just leaning it against the tow bar where it gets the afternoon sun is quite enough.

Also if I don't use my car for a few days I can plug it into its aux battery to keep that topped up too.

Don't you love free energy?

Re: Isn't Solar Power Great?

Very ingenious Bruce. I love solar power all my garden fairy lights are powered by it

Re: Isn't Solar Power Great?

Good setup Bruce....

Re: Isn't Solar Power Great?

Very clever Bruce

Re: Isn't Solar Power Great?

Over time I have had a few too they can be really good to prevent you walking into things.

There is a fascinating YouTube channel by a pommie electrician who goes by the name Big Clive who makes some interesting videos where he rips things apart to find out how they work.

https://www.youtube.com/user/bigclivedotcom

Re: Isn't Solar Power Great?

That's a very interesting read.