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cooperbruce avatar image
cooperbruce asked

What do i need for installing solar on my camper van?

Hi, I have a camper van with no solar currently, but I'm looking to change that!!

I was looking at mounting 2 x Mono 140w blue solar panels on the roof bars it possible (permanent bars that were installed befor we bought it and we dont use!!). So i know I need 2 panels, cable and gland box of some sort to get the cables into the van, but from there to our batteries, what do i need? we have 2 separate batteries currently, with a rotary switch to change from one to the other, so the batteries are never both connected at the same time, we just use one, and when it gets down to 11.9v we manually change the system over to the second battery... There is an old system in the van that links the van power (alternator) and the plug in 230v to charge the leisure batterie, but i dont want to add any more load to this device, just run the solar direct to batteries effectivily...

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kai-fuchs avatar image
kai-fuchs answered ·

You’ll need a blue solar or a smart solar (with Bluetooth) charge controller in addition to the panels. That’s basically it.

I don’t really understand why your leisure battery’s are separated. But to keep the system as it is, and charge the battery’s independent from each other you would need two charge controllers one per battery and at least one panel per charge controller.


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cooperbruce avatar image cooperbruce commented ·
I know it seems odd to do it this way alright, but when the 2 batteries were wired in together and they got low, the ampage when charging, going through the existing controller was too much for it and it failed, so i got the controller repaired and separated the batteries with the switch... no issues since.


Thanks for the advice, I will put the solar through a controller and then through a switch so i can send it to either battery, that way i can charge either battery at any one time. just wasn't sure if i needed anything else other then the blue solar or smart solar. many thanks again for the advice.

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kevgermany answered ·

Make sure that the panels have sufficient voltage to charge. Actual battery voltage +5V to start. Splitting two small panels across 2*MPPTs may not work.

Based on your description, may be better to use a single MPPT, both panels wired in series to charge one battery and add a DC:DC charger like the isolated orion to charge the second battery from the first. This won't compromise your battery isolation.

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cooperbruce avatar image cooperbruce commented ·
thanks for getting back to me on this, I hadn't heard of the Orion before, I was thing of just using another switch, (2 way) to send the power from the controller to either batterie A or battery B, so I can charge either of the batteries and still be able to use either one at a time, I apricate i have a strange setup, and its all manually controlled, but the original van controller couldn't cope with the higher battery bank when i added the second battery, so thats why there separated... Anyway, thank you again for your advice...
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nigely avatar image
nigely answered ·

You might find that you only need one battery if your solar charges more than you use in a day.

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Sarah avatar image
Sarah answered ·

Hi @Cooper.Bruce - lots of great suggestions, but, it sounds like a lot of guess work is going on. Knowing what type and size of batteries you have would go a long way to resolving this. It would also be super informative if you installed a smart shunt so that you know exactly what is happening with charge/discharge current and battery state of charge. Also, assuming you have lead acid based batteries discharging two batteries to 70% will have a huge increase on battery life as opposed to discharging one to 40% and then swapping it over. It’s a small additional expense but in my experience well worth it.

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