Not sure if l really need it
l was thinking of having a solar panel fitted to the motorhome, we had one on the caravan it came in useful at home, didn't need to hook up to keep the battery fully charged. we don't do off grid so l am not sure if its worth the extra money to have on installed and just hook up at home once an while to keep the battery healthy, any views
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I would think the money is better used for other things,i am sure you take your motor caravan out to keep "mobile" even for short trips if not away which would keep batteries charged ,which would,work out a lot cheaper that the cost of a solar panel
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If you don’t go off grid, I’d not bother with an SP.
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we don't do off grid so l am not sure if its worth the extra money
Could I ask why you never go off grid ?
I thought that was one of the benefits of a Motorhome - especially abroad.
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Does your mains electric system keep your vehicle battery topped up?If not a solar panel could be connected to both batteries. An alternative if there is no charging of the vehicle battery is to fit a Battery Master which would probably be a lot cheaper than a solar panel.
David
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My experience is that batteries that are trickle charged with an ‘intelligent’ charging system last considerably longer than those that are not. For that reason I’d always have a solar panel fitted, whatever my camping habits. At home or in storage a split charging system will keep both leisure and van battery in good condition without need for EHU. Also, if you’ve got Truma iNet fitted, you can turn gas heating on/off from wherever you happen to be if concerned about freezing at home/storage. Solar panel will enable you to run the blower in eco mode for a while and enable you to monitor battery voltage.
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I agree, since we changed from a caravan 3 and a half years ago we have rarely used a site, 99% of the time abroad we use Aires, here a mixture of CL's, pub stops, THS etc. and if I were to just use sites and hook up to EHU etc. I would think I may as well stayed with my caravan.
As for the question of having a SP fitted like others say it would keep your batteries topped up and ready to go without having to hook up and solar power is free unlike the stuff that comes out of plugs.
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I've got 120W worth on my MH split, IIRC, 80/20 to keep the batteries topped up. Originally it only charged the leisure battery but I linked in the vehicle one, saving me having to hook up a charger once a month. Additionally some of the most delightful places I've stopped have been "wild camping" on the banks of estuaries or rivers.
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we don't do off grid so l am not sure if its worth the extra money
Could I ask why you never go off grid ?
I thought that was one of the benefits of a Motorhome - especially abroad.
We had a MH for 6 years and never went off grid. We toured abroad twice a year for 2 - 3 months at a time but always stayed on sites.
Going off grid or using aires was the reason we moved to a MH, we didn't have a fixed SP but we did have and 80W briefcase type one. Never had the occasion to use it when away but we did use it at home to top up the batteries.
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We never had one with our caravan and I had to keep swapping the battery in storage, as the tracker and alarm drained it. When we switched to a MH we had solar panels fitted primarily to avoid doing that. However, we found them very useful in France this September, as it increased the number of Aires available to us. It also meant on those with a limited number of EHU's it didn't matter if we got one. Plus we could stay several days, have adequate power to watch TV, run the pump, recharge phones etc, and still leave with fullish batteries by 10:00am.
We really enjoyed this style of MHing and were pleased we had the solar. However, if you have no intention of going off grid and can power the MH at home, there are probably better things to spend your money on.
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I’ve got a professionally installed Gaslow system in a relatively new van, serviced annually by a competent engineer. I’ve got a heating system at home serviced annually by a competent engineer. If necessary I operate both remotely wherever I happen to be. I don’t really see the difference. There are LPG vehicles on the road and hydrogen cell cars in development so I’m not sure why a MH has to be treated so differently.
Apologies for going a bit off-topic.
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Our MH has a similar system, although can't be operated remotely.
However, our storage states on large signs that gas bottles must be turned off. As it would be quite obvious that it is running on a cold day when they wander round doing there checks, it could lead to being ejected from the facility. I would assume there might be insurance implications also.
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