Solar Panel set-up

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If you are serious about understanding the solar systems (which in reality once you read up on them are very simple) I can't recommend the following book highly enough:

"Solar That Really Works! - Motorhome Edition" by Collyn Rivers.

He is an Australian multi disciplined engineer that actually knows what he is talking about, here is his website URL:

Cavavan and Motorhome Books by Collyn Rivers

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Sorry, but having read his scratchings, I can tell you he has quite a bit incorrect...

Like Sol says "Engineers aint engineers......" :cool:
Not everyone with a piece of paper is right :wasntme:

Geez Hoges , you're a hard man :)

By background is mech services plumbing and I did add a question mark :angel:

Anyway hope this all helps Ean

Yeah... my son is passionate about his daily life of engines/airframes (helicopters) and wrestles similarly with avionics... I gently coach him occasionally of what's Watt...!! :eek::eek::D:D :wasntme:

Who's on first :D:D

I struggled for several years to get by on just 80W of solar if I wanted to base camp for a week in queensland in summer. I run a 60L evakool fridge/freezer.

80 W certainly helped a lot but only stretched my run times to 3-4 days after which I'd be running the 110 to top the batteries up.

I aimed for 100W but ended up overshooting to 145W which is more than ample now. Got a 65W panel for too good a price to pass up.

I hope that 80W works for you. Good on you if it does. Certainly, if you go driving for say 30 minutes a day when camped you should be fine.

Also get a BIG chain like I saw a bloke have at Lakeside camping at Ningaloo.
He had his Unisolar tied to his van with what looked like a 20 tonne chain!!! LOL.

Regards Philip A

We have two 64 watt Unisolar panels on our camper trailer and they work well. We are charging a deep cycle battery with them and run a Waeco 80L fridge, two 8W flouros and a water pump on our camper. So far, the two panels have just been sufficient. The only time we have had the battery go flat is after several days of overcast weather.
We bought the panels 12 months ago and at the time (and possibly still), there was no other panel with the same performance and durability. Unfortunately, I don't think that the panels are available at the moment. My understanding is that Unisolar have scaled down the production of the portable panels and put their effort into panels for residential installation.

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Originally Posted by Tombie2

Sorry, but having read his scratchings, I can tell you he has quite a bit incorrect...

Like Sol says "Engineers aint engineers......" :cool:
Not everyone with a piece of paper is right :wasntme:

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That's your opinion which you have every right to.

I have only one of his books, & I can't find fault in it & that is from experience not just being an armchair critic.

Anyone with the amount of experience that Collyn Rivers has will always gain my respect & attention:


Caravan World
January 2002

Collyn Rivers knows his stuff - he's been a research engineer for GM, and specialised in measuring vehicle behaviour and performance. In the 1960's, he drive a 4WD laboratory-motorhome across Africa monitoring track conditions. He migrated to Australia in 1963 and subsequently founded the worldwide Electronics Today International magazine that was later to earn itself a global award.

With more than 20 books and magazines in electronics, business computing, communications and music to his credit, he later became Technical Editor of Australian Business and The Bulletin and also wrote the Federal Government's Guide to Information Technology.

Collyn has twice drive across Australia with his sculptor wife Maarit in a full on OKA motorhome. The couple's treks have included making it to the tip of Cape York, across the Simpson Desert and along most of Australia's inland major and minor tracks.

With 40 years experience in designing and using motorhomes and campervans, Collyn Rivers has now put his encyclopedic knowledge of the subject into print in a comprehensive work, The Campervan and Motorhome Book.

Collyn says, "There are tens of thousands of people travelling around Australia in caravans, campervans and motorhomes and the Campervan and Motorhome Club of Australia has around 26,000 members with its ranks swelling at the rate of 300 every month."

"For retirees in particular, this is a regular way of life, but despite the rate of growth in the following of the wandering lifestyle there's little independent information available about buying, building, converting or even using these vehicles."

He concluded, "The just published The Campervan and Motorhome Book will fill this need.".

Collyn Rivers' book deals with a host of issues germane to campervans and motorhomes and there's quite a bit that is relevant to caravans too. In the many appendices there is virtually no issue that he hasn't covered. Certainly his engineering background is a superb credential but best of all, Collyn has done it all himself and is still doing it, and he has represented a fine catalogue of experience in this comprehensive handbook.

There's mechanical advice, advice on tyres, advice on choosing a vehicle, building your own RV, gas, water and electrical systems including solar power, what medium of fuel to use, what to carry and how to prepare for a trip. There's also a lot of information on the economics of living on the road, something that is of utmost importance for those who have never done this sort of thing before.

Looking into the uni-solar panels I found this:

Uni-Solar panel..A word of caution. @ ExplorOz

..interesting point to be made.

has anyone thought about using a small wind turbine instead, you see them on yachts occasionally