Thread: Domestic solar panels for a vehicle

My mate has [privded more info on hi set up:

Victron BlueSolar 75 15 MPPT Solar Regulator - Springers Solar
Think handles 250w household. New can get the $300new or gumtree has plenty 2nd pnels for under $100 max.
Allow $120 for some mc4 connects and a pre made lead from them for pv to mppt and 5m of 6mm lead to battery.

Those prices made it cheaper for decent quality set up rather than saupacentre 12v folding panel setup.
Dont have to be sunflower all day chasing the direct sunlight for panels to produce charge.
To prove charge need 4.5v over charging voltage usually14. To 14.6 depending battery type. 19.0 volts basically. A 12v panell needs direct sunlight for voc of 19.0volts to start producing charge current.

My panels is 44.0volt voc. So even in shade the voc is usually 19.0 voc. Watts maybe low but they can still pump charge in.

Victron VE.Direct Bluetooth LE Dongle - Springers

Dongle is about $75 atm. Need Bluetooth 4.0 to run the app.
Very handy. 30day history is great feature of use and charging
Will get a screen shot of app where it show mmpt suppling load terminals to frige 3.0amps and charging battery 2.0 amps at same time. Once had decent mppt you know why the cheaper Pwm solar chargers are so cheap. Because they are crap and kill batteries.


4days of rain and storms leading up to xmas last year the Batterylife it cut power to load terminals on 4th day. But that was deliberate not using 2nd deep cycle battery to run fridge and thats at -15c. Battery that Batterylife function cut power was back to float charge on 5th day as was pure sunshine and my 165w panels peak draw was 195watts produced. Yes over rated amount as mppt must have really needed the power to charge up.

I have two domestic solar panels on the roof of my single axle van , with Viltron blue MPPT , keeps both batteries charged and fridge running even parked up through winter . And one domestic panel on the roof of Truck , ditto keeps house battery and fridge running permanently , then topples into the starter battery to keep that alive if parked up. A LOT cheaper and more efficient than so called Off road solar panels .

why do you need a history of charge?
surely your undry washing will tell you that yesterday was no good for your batts,,,
I would think anyone that uses a monthly recording probably is set up so they can safely ignore it,,

Interesting Vlad.. Harry is rebuilding a classic caravan and it was suggested by Springers that we use a house solar panel as it will run the 12volt fridge more efficiently.

Mrs hh

I have a VIctron MPPT 10/30 controller with two 200W, 24V (house?) panels on my van. The Victron Bluetooth interface has been useful in a geeky kind of way to see just how much energy is being harvested & to compare the voltage at the controller with that at the battery. A difference in voltage prompted me to uprate the cables between the controller & the batteries.
When stopped, I use an Anderson plug to between the D4 & the caravan which keeps the Engel running & 2 Optima batteries + the cranking battery charged.

Problem with the house panels is they measure roughly 1600x800mm & weigh 15 kilos each.

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

why do you need a history of charge?
surely your undry washing will tell you that yesterday was no good for your batts,,,
I would think anyone that uses a monthly recording probably is set up so they can safely ignore it,,

Probably the same people who log mileage and fuel consumption

Aside from knowing how far We can get on a tank, does it really help to know the history of $$$ consumed by the engine

Originally Posted by Milton477

Problem with the house panels is they measure roughly 1600x800mm & weigh 15 kilos each.

Is that for two panels or one?
When I get the canopy on the ute I should have room for something 1600x800.

Panels pop up on gumtree pretty cheap so if you have the space to mount them and a suitable reg then sounds like a good option.