Solar Panel

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alt.energy.renewable

Speedy Jim

unless you got money forget new.

your in australia so I am not sure but every now and then at shows near me in the USA (especially the trenton county computer fair) there is a guy who sells the BIG panels (figure 3 or 4 could fit on top of your van maybe) and might give you enough juice to be useful.

These panels are LARGE like 4-6 feet long and 2-4 feet wide. and don't forget the reverse power gidget to keep the solar panels from drawing the battery dead after dark :-) kind of a one way valve for electricity.

Also protection will be an issue. invest in some lexan to sheild them.

Chris Taylor

VW Ships new cars with small panels to charge the batteries...

Get in touch with a local dealership and see if they can get you a couple.

I've heard they throw them out.

Check VW SOLAR on ebay.....

Timmy

Are you looking for a solar panel to help keep the deep cycle battery charged or are you wanting a solar panel to actually run the fridge ?

I would check with some of the rv or camper newsgroups as they deal with this all the time.

Randy

Hi Mr H

I've been looking around for similar reasons, I mean hey if the Aussie sun is gonna beat down on that much roof (I've got a 1978 Van no pop-top) why not put it to use.

Try these two sites, the first is general Solar info,

and this one is all things twelve volts (in WA though) Cheers,

John

The Canadian Tire chain has been flogging solar battery trickle chargers for years, but this one looks like it could do more.

This one would just keep topping up your battery.

I guess it depends on what you need.

James

ok. 1 of the RV or camper ones should work nicely for you then. You sound worried about propane leaks. Do you have that many of them ? Randy

....................I camped for several years (summers in upstate NY) with a westy that I used to own while using the three-way fridge on gas (I'd run it on 12 volts only while driving and usually avoided campgrounds that had hook-ups for AC current). Occassionally, I'd have to try a couple of times to get it lit but that's not unheard of and is usually because the tank isn't level enough because of the terrain or more often the operator (me!) is being impatient. Never had any real problems with it once it was working. As for propane leaks, all of these fridges that I've seen had thermo-limiting shutoff valves that are very safe and effective from what I know. Given that the tank & fill valve/ press. regulator are all safely outside of the passenger compartment and also that the exhaust from the flame is vented to the outside..............It's a safe to use system in my opinion.........

...................................Get a propane gas service to check the lines and connections for leaks if you think that there might be a problem. I did have the tank valve & press. regulator replaced on mine I remember at the propane service one time, they take quite a beating from the elements over time. Also, ask your propane service or RV center if they carry battery operated gas alarms that detect propane and mount one near the floor and close to the fridge (I put mine along with a battery powered carbon monoxide detector on that panel beneath the rear seat/bed).

Mr. Hibatchi-san,

Figure on replacing, 200 watts (12 @ 18 amps), for 24 hours = 4.8KWH

if you want to collect or harvest energy for say 6 hours per day of sunlight, then you must produce, 0.8 KWH , or 800 watts per hour. you can figure on extracting to electrical energy about 100 watts per square meter (about same as square yard), so you need 8 square yard (or meters ) of solar panel area.

For a reduced collector area you must, reduce the 200 watts to 100 (low power the fridge?) rubn for say 12 hours on battery, theby reducing total energy budget to 1.2 KWH. perhaps in summer you may streeeech to say 8 hours of solar collect time and you still get... 150 watts per hour generation requirement needing 1.5 square meters of surface area...

So that is your best plan, get one (or eventually two) standard 1 meter "siemens" solar panel(s), figure out a charging management plan and system.

I use an old solar panel to keep my batteries topped off in my 5th wheel camper and also use one on my boat to keep its battery in good shape. I use a panel that is about 18 inches by 3 feet. It's 25 years old, not sure what its made of , it has blue crystals in it.. It will only put out

2.9 amps in full summer sunlight , pointed straight at the sun, not laying down. If you get new panels , they are about 3 times more powerful than the old ones. Our railroad uses one panel , same size as mine and it puts out 9.8 amps! So panel technology has come a long way. So your frig draws 3 amps? Thats DC? Is it a thermocouple type? My frig draws about 300 watts,,,but thats AC and about 3 amps... Most RV frig's just draw too much for solar power. Maybe if you had the whole roof covered , then that's only power during the day. I have a portable cooler which uses D.C. , but its about 10 amps and will wipe out a battery in half a day so you can only use it while driving..and then it only drops the temperature about 35 degrees at best. I'm beginning to babble now,,,so hope this helps.

-- Leo Yudysky '68 bug '69 bug