Monday, September 25, 2006

Camping solar set

From Volkswagen Transporter T3


The photo above shows my camping solar set. It is the beginning of what will power all my camping appliances. I am going to power all the camping stuff (refrigerator, lights, water pump, even CD player) from second battery, charged with car alternators and also with solar panel).

The solar panel can be folded and put in backpack. It has connectors (gray, can be seen on the photo) which allow it to be connected paralelly to another photovoltaic panels (paralelly - the same voltage, but more power). The solar panel also has connector for plugging car lighters, for example I can put there my cellphone car charger.

The charge controller has three sets of connectors: one for battery, one for solar panel, one for the stuff that's to be powered with the battery. It protects the battery from being discharged too much but also from being overcharged and discharged by solar panel during the nights.

For now, the set consists of old (not fully operational) 45 Ah car battery I used in my Fiat 126p, charge controller, solar photovoltaic panel and LED lamp (made of LED bulb for home halogen lamps).

In future I'll install there bigger battery and connect all the camping equipment to it. Perhaps I'll buy a 12/230V inverter?

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Mate,

I like your solar thing. Where did you get it?

Thanks :)

Martin

Krzysztof Lis said...

The battery came from my old car. The solar battery and charger I found on our local online auction website.

Unknown said...

Thanks, is there any brand on it? I'm thinking if I can get it somewhere on ebay or on some online shop..

cheers.
m.

Krzysztof Lis said...

I don't remember the brand, but found something similar on ebay for flexible solar panel phrase. :)