How much power do I need?
To calculate the amount of power you need each day, you need to take into consideration what 12V or 240V appliances you wish to run.
- How long will you be staying off road?
- How much power will you use each day?
- How much room have you got to install the panels and the batteries.
- Do you prefer to have the solar panels fitted or have the solar panels in a portable kit form.
- What will you need for a back up power for inclement weather.
- How much do you wish to spend on setting up for solar power in your caravan.
The calculation is quite simple. We talk in Amp Hours because the deep cycle batteries which are used in the solar system are rated in Amp Hours. i.e. the batteries may be 12 Volts rated at 100 Amp Hours.
Therefore you will need to look at the appliances and convert the Watts to Amp hours. To do this you need to divide the Watts by 12 (12 because the battery is 12V), i.e. your 240V TV is rated at say 60 Watts, so divide 60 Watts by 12, this = 5. So you will use 5 Amps per hour whilst you are watching your TV.
For example: you may watch 3 hours of TV per day, 3 x 5 = 15 Amp hours used each day.
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