The Sun

Not the gutter rag!

I've been pondering about how to keep the leisure battery topped up while not on a 240v hook up.

I need to think about what my usage would likely to be, and although a decent 110A leisure battery should last my relatively low consumption for a weekend, any longer and I would either need to find an alternative power source such as a 240v hook up, or a split charge system from the vans battery but this would need to have the engine running for long periods.

When am on a site, it's not a problem as I will 9/10 times have a hook up, therefore I could  run my 12V stuff plus have the 240v for 'luxuries' such as Laptop, Kettle and perhaps a small TV.

As I could be off grid so to speak for perhaps a week or more, then Solar Panels seemed to be the best option for me and the most economical and environmentally friendly option.

This would allow me to keep the leisure battery topped up, and perhaps with a small inverter I could have my laptop on for a couple hours a day too.

I've been looking a bit into solar panels, and the price varies a fair bit. This is down to the Wattage of the panels and the type of charge control unit I went for.

A good source of information is Bimble Solar, who some of you reading this will know from their awesome little tent at several festivals.

They do a good range of kit, and cheap 2nd hand panels, but the postage to here is around £45 so that put me off.

Then last night on eBay, I seen an auction for a 200W (2 x 100W panels) kit, which contained everything I needed. Ok so this size of panels are probably too much for what I need, but it's good to have 'extra' juice and to be honest, what I bid and paid for it was fantastic.

Somewhat ironically, the only reason I decided to go for this set up now (I was going to wait till next year) was the fact that yesterday I got my annual dual fuel bill/statement and got a refund which was enough to cover this kit...

Save power and create power