Scarab Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 19 minutes ago, Mr Plodd said: I have seen one. When I suggested they had their pricing on the website wrong they very kindly explained that people use a lot more electricity over the winter so they needed to charge more to cover their costs. It made perfect sense to me! . Again, I agree (I too, have seen one or two that do this, as I said before) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whomer Posted May 18, 2022 Share Posted May 18, 2022 On 11/09/2021 at 14:21, Malx said: Caravans are energy guzzling dinosaurs. Perhaps sites charging for electricity will cause manufacturers to really thing about the green credentials of their caravans. We have a 9 year old Swift caravan. Supposedly well insulated, but the amount of energy needed to heat it is phenomenal. We were on a small CL that had meters, they were not used for charging, but I did before and after readings and worked out the energy costs. It was during a mild spell early one year and the costs were towards £4 a day. Hate to think what they would be in winter. Caravans are draughty boxes where energy saving consideration are not well thought out. ‘Energy guzzling drafts boxes’? my 17 year old Hymer is so well insulated, I’ve never used the gas heating even in winter. A quick 30 minutes with the electric element in the Truma warms it up to short sleeves even on a November evening. The only way I’d get a draught would be to open the door or a window. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siwillems Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 An idea I have been thinking about is a grid the inverter, my thought is that if the van was parked at home (or a site potentially) any energy produced by the solar panels could be used to offset any electricity being used in my house this reducing the electricity bill. From what I understand small amounts can be fed back into the grid without any special tarrifs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Plodd Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Caravan size Solar panels produce 12 volts, the National Grid runs on 230 ! Quote Experience is something you acquire after you have an urgent need for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xyleth Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 7 hours ago, Mr Plodd said: Caravan size Solar panels produce 12 volts, the National Grid runs on 230 ! Strictly speaking home panels produce 12v too. Maybe 24v depending on the panel design. It's DC power too. You wire them up in series to the inverter which handles the job of regulating the output to the 240v, 50hz required for UK mains connection. Currently in pretty much full sunshine my house PV is delivering around 435 volts from the panels to the DC side of the inverter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Plodd Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Dunno what voltage mine are chucking out, but around mid-day they were producing a fraction over 3.5 Kw (15 panels) I love my fit payments! Quote Experience is something you acquire after you have an urgent need for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN2880 Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 Both my 100W and 60W panels each produce 18V at max efficiency ( and 21V open circuit), the controller then uses a switch mode converter to drop this down to 13.8 for the battery charging. As a previous poster says you can wire them in series from 48V to 400V D.C per string , a DC-AC inverter then changes this to 230V 50Hz A.C and syncs it in to the mains , but even on a sunny day in summer it would take ages to charge my PHEV (36 hours ignoring conversion losses) so using grid electricity is more practical. If sites offered electric hook for my car, I would pay, if the charge is reasonable. Currently it costs £1.72 to charge my car at home ( not including the 28p/day standing charge) , obviously full electric cars would be a lot dearer, so metering would be a fairer method. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siwillems Posted May 19, 2022 Share Posted May 19, 2022 6 hours ago, Mr Plodd said: Dunno what voltage mine are chucking out, but around mid-day they were producing a fraction over 3.5 Kw (15 panels) I love my fit payments! Lol, no need to bragg...... My panel is a 175 watt panel. It makes about 1kw a day on average. Once the battery are charged there's spare energy to be had. Rather than spend large on a complex system with storage etc, I could just cover the load The house uses to tick along which is around 50 - 150 watts an hour, any excess would go into the grid which I won't be paid for but it would be green as they say......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Plodd Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 But to supply your house, or feed it back into the grid, you would need an inverter to change the panels output from DC into AC and then Synch the wave form to the mains. An inverter is about £1500. Green, but expensive! Quote Experience is something you acquire after you have an urgent need for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madasaman Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 15 hours ago, Mr Plodd said: Dunno what voltage mine are chucking out, but around mid-day they were producing a fraction over 3.5 Kw (15 panels) I love my fit payments! So do I, roll on June Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madasaman Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 I'm linked to my inverter in the loft via bluetooth, so can see all outputs on mobile in real time. The app is called Oxley Solar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN2880 Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 10 hours ago, siwillems said: 175 watt panel. It makes about 1kw a day on average. Nice mis-use of units there, a Watt or kiloWatt is a power measurement ie transfer of energy per second. Joules or watt.hrs and kW.hrs are units of energy. and the w in Watts need to be a capital letter after James Watt who it was named after. - Sorry to be pedantic So if your panel produces 1kW.hr of energy per day at 175Joules per second it would take 1000/175 = 5.7 hours -sound right. Oh and and a GroWatt inverter (3.6kW) is only about £500 it takes 48V to 500V D.C converts it to single phase 230V 50Hz and syncs it to the mains. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siwillems Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Inverter-DC18V-50V-AC180-260V-Output/dp/B08CH529HH/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Grid+Tie+Inverter&qid=1653082892&sr=8-6 The inverter in the link above is at a fair price, if it's any good or not who knows. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IAN2880 Posted May 20, 2022 Share Posted May 20, 2022 its only 300W, but is grid tie in which is good Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siwillems Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 As more and more vans sold have solar panels fitted as standard, I can only see having something like this fitted as part of the system as a useful addition, helping the environment and the site to use less electricity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 7 hours ago, siwillems said: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solar-Inverter-DC18V-50V-AC180-260V-Output/dp/B08CH529HH/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=Grid+Tie+Inverter&qid=1653082892&sr=8-6 The inverter in the link above is at a fair price, if it's any good or not who knows. I’m not convinced that item you linked above should even be used (or allowed to connect to the grid would need G83 certification) in the UK and can’t see any CE markings either. I’d avoid it personally. Maybe have a look at Enphase micro inverters ? Quote Cheers, Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
siwillems Posted May 21, 2022 Share Posted May 21, 2022 1 hour ago, Martin said: I’m not convinced that item you linked above should even be used (or allowed to connect to the grid would need G83 certification) in the UK and can’t see any CE markings either. I’d avoid it personally. Maybe have a look at Enphase micro inverters ? Thanks, that's good to know. At the moment it's just a concept, points like yours I'm i'll bear in mind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.