benimar Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Hello all, I am new to this site but not new to Motorhome camping etc. I am able to tackle diy tasks with good results and am not adverse to putting the odd hole into the roof of a camper. Care and caution always come first. I am losing my beloved Benimar this week, trading it in for a nearly new van. If you see it, it may be the van for you, slightly worn but very reliable and competent. The new van does not have a solar panel on the roof, unlike the Benimar which is built in . Our trips away generally are family ones and weekends or long weekends and of course the 2 week summer week easter and October etc etc. We very rarely use electricity and prefer temp hol homes weekend out and abouts etc. I know Cheapskates arn't we. Anyway I would like to put a solar panel on the roof of our new van, we never ever had a problem running out of battery in our old van and believe this to be the way forward. Freestanding seem to be the easy option but I wonder if people can point me in the direction of how to, for the roof option. Many thanks. This site has been so useful, keep it coming. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 If you don't ude much leccy, you may be better off just fitting an extra leisure battery. If they are 110amp ones they should do you fine. The change should buy you enough ice cream for everyone! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Have you looked at glueing it on, many people on here have done that indeed I think Roadpro may recomend it. You should check on their site to see Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olley Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Hi just fitted two, glued and screwed them, I have heard of people just gluing them, but it seems like tempting fate to me. Olley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benimar Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 Nice idea, I guess, because I had one, I believe I will always need one, 2 Batteries may be a better idea and easier to fix up. thank you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 If a second leisure battery will do what you want for as long as you want then it is without doubt the most economical way to go. If however you wish to be able to go wild endlessly in the summer then Solar is the most agreeable option. Our MH has some roof bars fitted as standard. I have made some stainless steel "U" bolts and some aluminium angle brackets and bolted our 80 watt panel to them. Like Olley in the winter the EFOY 1600 comes into play. Some people will need two 80 watt panels to support their lifestyle. Silcoflex is used by many in the trade to bond panels to MH roofs. Providing the correct cleaning and pre-treatment is done it works fine. If you get a panel fitted at a show the installers are likely to use screws as well as they don,t trust you to leave it alone for 24 hours to let the stuff cure first. Personally I don,t like drilling holes in the roof. It just seems to be tempting providence!. C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 if your heating is of the blown air type and with lights +tv and when its cold, batteries loose a big percentage of power.you do become used to solar power and enjoy your mh without having to skimp and worry(we have 280amps +100w panel, at the shepton mallet show in jan' batteries were dying quick)maybe from the cold as much as anything.I do not like using the honda 10i .....,noise polution. but had to.so now will be using a efoy...regarding the fitting of the panel we had the previous mh one fitted by the company from leicester whom go to most shows ,nice job and well priced,they glued in place using stickoflex and even with my hasty driving no problems Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davenewellhome Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 I bond panels onto the roofs of motorhomes with SIKAFLEX (not silcoflex or stickoflex) 252 and it works superbly. I also use it for satellite dishes. Just follow the instructions on the tube. D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Clive, we are in the process of deciding whether to go down the solar route, but before we do, how is the old EFOY working out? Is it efficient and would you say it was a better bet than panels. We are hoping to go long term touring this year and full timing from next year. We have 2 x 110amp batteries plus a 2000 watt inverter that will be powering an air con, hairdryer and microwave, (but not at the same time!), plus the usual "van stuff". On our present van the inverter runs off the vehicle battery when the engine is running, so it doesn't interfere with the leisure batteries, so there is no real problem with them losing too much power. But for full timing this won't be as convenient, so a change of set up will be needed. Hence the need for a supplimentary charging unit. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olley Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Hi I looked at alternatives to the panels, but for the price of an Efoy I could buy a lot of solar panels, and once fitted they are, apart from the occasional clean "fit and forget" Where as an Efoy needs fuel which may not be generally availble, and isn't cheap. The clincher for me was I got them s/h just 1 year old at less than half price with a controller. :-D Olley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Syd Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Remember that solar panels can be quiet heavy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Thanks Syd for the reminder! But according to my maths we should have enough spare weight capacity on the new van to allow for a 130watt panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
handyman Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 i would say 99% of van owners would be better off with another leisure battery. (thats if you even need that) But then thats not 'right on' or 'cool' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clive Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Stephen, (and anybody else who may be interested) The next installment of the EFOY field trial will be in print in a couple of months I understand. It "does exactly what it says on th tin". I have another installment in work. As we aspire to a new van with jucier 12 volt consumption I was happy to swap the 900 unit for a 1600 unit in October at the NEC. Having said that the 900 did more than we required in our Scout. We spent Easter "Methanol powered" with the 1600 and thrashed everything 12 volt possible. plus some mains kit via the inverter. However I would always prefer "free" power via a large solar array first, but in the winter EFOY wins hands down. Have both. I just hope I can purchase the 1600 unit at the end of the trial for a good "second hand" price! The 1600 purrs a bit quicker than the 900 so you need to ensure its on some resilient mounts so you don,t hear it in bed. Like on some foam perhaps? Justification? well, use whatever argument you used for the motorhome in the first place! Its only money. (quite a bit with todays exchange rate!) C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Den Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Hi clive i totaly agree about reasons for buying the efoy and justyfing to buy the mh in the first place.its all about being able to enjoy to its full potential without compromise,and when in france ect on the aires without electric.NO problems.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo3090 Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 Clive, "Have both!" Have I won the lottery and no one told me? The winters shouldn't be a problem in that we intend to be away in the sun for most of them and one of the heavy load users, (the air con), won't be used then anyway, so I think the panel should cope quite easy then. We do have 2 110 amp batteries without a panel now but we will need more power when we are full timing anyway so we thought it was a good idea to get stuff now when we first get the van and our outlay won't, (or shouldn't) have too many surprises in the future. The van can be perfectly justified on financial grounds because it's great being in it! :-D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olley Posted March 28, 2008 Share Posted March 28, 2008 handyman - 2008-03-28 12:13 PM i would say 99% of van owners would be better off with another leisure battery. (thats if you even need that) But then thats not 'right on' or 'cool' If your frugal with your electric I expect your right, but I don't want to be "frugal" We go to 4 or 5 of the M/H shows every year, arriving Friday morning, by sunday morning my battery monitor tells me we have used well over 250amps out of a possible 540, (3x180amp batteries) with the telly on and a couple of lights we draw 20amps. I don't want to start the genny in consideration for other people so I need an alternative. Even on an overcast day they still produce 3-4 amps so over a weekend they will pump up to 100amps back in, and thats us sorted. Olley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 We have solar panel and 12v fridge, hotter and brighter the sun more power supplied to fridge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benimar Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 Thank you for all the comments, we won't be full timing for a couple of years at least. The old Benimar 752 bit the dust at Brownhills on Saturday, if you see it, give it my best, I hope someone worthy picks it up, the new kid on the block is an RV. On board Jenny and LPG to boot. I will fit another 110 and an 80w panel. Would you guys tell me where the best place might be to get the panel and will it have the bits and bobs and instructions. SHand would be cool. I will scour the mmm for opertunities, dealers and of course the obligatory ebay. I have posted a new question today regarding electric steps, hopefully information will come just as well. Many thanks once again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vennwood Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Bit late in the day but thought I would add my two pence worth anyway just in case any users were interested. I spent hours and hours debating this issue as we are heavy users of 240v power and don't like using EHU. In the end I went for 2 x 130W panels, beefed up my leisure batteries then sat back and reviewed the results for the next 12 months. During last summer the panels performed superbly - only needing the occasional top up after 3 or more weeks in the wild along the South of France. The panels produced on average approx 70 amps per day with some days producing over 100 amps. I should add we run a 2.5KW inverter and use kettle, toaster, microwave, hair drier and various chargers. We did the same thing this winter - 6 weeks in Italy and S of France and needed EHU once every 6 days or so. The panels produced approx 15 - 20 amps per day. In the UK Solar panels in winter are almost a waste of time with many days producing less than 5 amps. So I looked at Efoy and Self Energy EG 20 - both items being roughly the same cost if you go for the 1600 Efoy. (around £2200) In the end I couldn't justify the cost given that I only needed to top up every so often and ended up buying a small genny. (£250) We camp mostly in the wild and even when we aren't the French (and English) use gennies all the time with the majority being considerate users. So now we have the best of both worlds and use the panels as the main source with genny as back up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thamesist Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 I'm an advocate of fitting lower powered items ie led lighting. By replacing the MR11 spots with led's, we've reduced total lighting consumption to 1.5amps- about a tenth of halogen bulbs. (we don't take a TV but sometimes use a laptop). Therefore our 2 110amp/hr batteries can last three or four days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
olley Posted April 5, 2008 Share Posted April 5, 2008 Vennwood - 2008-04-05 12:07 PM Bit late in the day but thought I would add my two pence worth anyway just in case any users were interested. Thanks for that info Vennwood, I have the same power solar's so its good to know that they will hopefully keep up with our consumption, one immediate benifit is I no longer need to plug the EHU in at home, which saves on leccy, and I don't have to worry about driving off with it still plugged in. :-D Olley Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travelling Tyke Posted April 8, 2008 Share Posted April 8, 2008 Hello all. This is an option I am still considering. I have fitted led.s and reduced the lighting load to about 1 1/2 amps. Other systems have not been changed. We are new to travelling but have recently been through France, Spain and Morocco. As we have not had any problems with the power - we have been moving on after a max of three nights (and as such charging the batteries) with some of the nights on mains- I feel that the cost/benefits are still to be decided. What doesn't help is that it seems to be cheaper to buy a gas powered generator, which I admit will create problems with the gas useage but will be a more versatile purchase. I will watch this thread with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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