Solar in the shade
I mostly camp in wooded sites. Am I right in thinking that solar doesn't do much good in that case? My impression is that if part of the panel is shaded, the output of the whole panel drops pretty fas...
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Also keep in mind your camping style as well. We like the trees so we don't get the best performance due to the sites we typically camp at. We would be in trouble if we stayed like that a week or weeks at a time. But we normally don't stay in one spot for more than 4 days.
The solar on the roof sitting in pretty shady spots didn't keep up with our needs everyday, but when we were on the move it did a great job of bring our batteries back up to full or nearly full.
I now know more what to expect. If we are going to camp too long in one spot I will probably seek out a little less shade, but I doubt we will need full sun ever due to our pretty low power needs. If that would ever change I might try a portable panel or two down the road.
The solar on the roof sitting in pretty shady spots didn't keep up with our needs everyday, but when we were on the move it did a great job of bring our batteries back up to full or nearly full.
I now know more what to expect. If we are going to camp too long in one spot I will probably seek out a little less shade, but I doubt we will need full sun ever due to our pretty low power needs. If that would ever change I might try a portable panel or two down the road.
