Hi I have a caravan that has no battery
I would like to fit a battery and solar panels
Any advice would be welcome
Cheers James

Give us more details, is it a really old van with no 12v system or a modern van that just doesn't have a battery fitted? Landrover - turning owners into mechanics since 1948

2014 Orkney grey Freelander SD4 GS.
2004 Zambezi silver Discovery 2 Td5 (Gone)
1963 Surf blue Morris Mini Minor Super de Luxe (my little toy)

Its a t@b van German 2013
It's got a dometic 240 to 12v inverter
No battery fitted
I have a leisure battery from my old van
I've been looking at kits on eBay and amazon
I'm wanting to run the 12v sockets lights and water pump off the battery because I know they are 12v

Have you tried searching other sites, here is one example

www.campingandcaravanningclub.co.uk/helpan...lar-power/

Plenty of others about, lots of narrowboats use solar these days as well, might be worth searching at www.canalworld.net

I don't have a caravan, but have Victron MPPT 100/20 controller & two DC-DC chargers & gel batteries in the car.

If you are on the move every few days you could just have the car charge up the batteries. A DC- DC charger next to the battery will keep the voltage up.

If staying put longer then get solar. To get the morning sun as early as possible. Put 2 panels in series using a MPPT controller. Don't buy a cheap MPPT as they are often not an MPPT. You need to be able to put 2 to 3 panels in series.

Draw up a diagram of the caravan roof so you can place panels away from things that could cast a shadow in the morning. A tiny shadow & you end up with no power.

Do not skimp on wiring. The wiring is the hardest thing to do, so do it right the first time. Oversize wiring between key things. When calculating wire resistance it is the total length of + & - so if you have 6 metres between panels & controller, it is actually 12 metres.

Calculate solar at 150 watts per square metre, & this is for when the sun is directly overhead. You can sketch the morning sun on a piece of paper & see that you will only get a small percentage due to the angle. So you will need to oversize the panels.




Inclement weather further reduces solar input. The best charger is your car's engine, with good wiring & a large DD-DC (40amps) charger & wiring directly from the car's battery.

Get proper solar panel pads, there are a lot of rubbish ones out there which pretend to be the right plastic but do not stick properly. Use Sikaflex to bond them down. Do not use a solar panels that have plastic corners.

Draw up the layout of everything before you buy anything.



This is 7.8amps into my controller with 6 x 20 watt panels in parallel. I normally run 2 in series x 3 sets.

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Thank for your input
Cheers James

I sent a PM. Procrastination, mankind's greatest labour saving device!

Acoustic insulation ARB TPMS 3xARB air compressors After cooler Air tank On-board OCD pressure air/water cleaning Additional 50L fuel Carpet in doors ABE 2x1kg Waeco 28L modified fridge Battery 4x26ah Solar 120w Victron MPPT 100/20 DC-DC 18amps 175amp jumper plug Awning 6x255/60R18

I fitted a solar panel to my trailer last year and got the bits from Photonic Universe ( www.photonicuniverse.com ) whom I found to be very helpful. It’s just a simple setup of a 20W panel connected to a basic PWM controller, so nowhere near as hardcore as the setup Lightwater has. However, for topping up the 22Ah AGM battery that powers my winch it's perfectly adequate. With a bigger leisure battery 20W probably wouldn’t be sufficient but doubling or perhaps trebling the solar panel wattage might be sufficient.