This is probably the biggest job I have left to do, and one that I wasn't really looking forward to if am being honest!
So back in October, I bought myself a couple of Solar Panels and as the weather was to be nice this week, I decided to try fitting them.
The metal brackets I got with the kit were no good, I wanted to use some decent solar panel mounts which I would bond onto the fibreglass roof of the van.
So I got myself 2 pairs of Biard Solar Panel mounts, which I would bolt onto the panels, then bond the mounts to the roof.
So far so good, well until I actually went ahead and measured everything up, the 2 panels would not fit lengthways down the van, but would just fit and no more when put horizontally.
My problem is, that the edge of the van roof slants down ever so slightly, so I would be bonding onto a surface that isn't perfectly flat!
Anyway, firstly I had to drill the bolt holes through the above mounts, 5 per mount.
Once I done that, I lined up the mounts to the end of the panels, and marked with a sharpie the hole locations I needed to drill on the panel sides.
And then drilled through the panels, carefully as not to damage them,
Once all 20 holes had been drilled, I fitted the M8 bolts I got, with a washer on the outside, spring washer on the inside, then a locking nut to hold it all together.
Now the hard part, bonding the panels to the roof! So to prepare the surface, I gave it a good clean with white spirits and also used a 3M abrasive pad to rub it down.
I then rather messily put plenty of Sikaflex 221 onto the base of the mounts, and then positioned these where the first panel was going.
I decided to only do one panel today, as am paranoid that it won't bond... if it does I will then do the other one tomorrow.
The reason the panel has cardboard covering it too is they can't be exposed to sunlight when not connected to the charge controller.
To help put some pressure on it to bond, I put a couple of concrete garden slabs... and have covered this with a tarp and will check it tomorrow!
I have managed to cover myself, the roof, slabs and everything else in the Sikaflex... oh well as long as the panels stay down!
To be continued...
Update 09/04/15
So woke up this morning, and thankfully the panel was still attached. On checking it, it seems pretty sturdy but will still let it bond for a day or 2 before moving the van.
I then put the 2nd panel up exact same way as the previous one, and then made a start on the cabling for them. I had 2 Y cables to join the panels together with MC4 connectors, these would remain under the panels and then just needed 1 pair of cables to go through roof.
The plan was to drill through the fiberglass roof to put the 2 cables through, then I used a roof entry box to seal it up and then sikaflexed this to the roof also making it watertight.
The internal cabling was pretty simple, just a case of running the 2 wires to the Solar Controller I fitted what feels like months ago now.. well it was!
So the wiring came down through the roof, and then I drilled a couple of holes at the back of the storage area, to run them under the wardrobe.
They then went along underneath the sofa and to the electrics panel, and connected up to the controller.
Once I had connected the wires, I removed the cardboard from the panel I installed yesterday. As you can see my work won't win any prizes for neatness, but as long as it holds down!
And as you can see on the photo below, I have a green light so something must be working right...
I powered up the control panel, and not long passed before I noticed the Voltage increasing. I knew this wasn't 100% accurate reading. so also checked both battery voltages too and they had increased too... and that is only with one panel in use.
So once the other one has bonded overnight, I will remove the cardboard from that one too and then do some more tests by letting the batteries run down a bit and then seeing if I get a good charge from the panels.
Happy Days :)
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