Enough power?
I currently have a 55W solar panel on the camper. Was out boondocking for a week and after a few showers and running the heater a few times in the morning, I see this panel can't quite keep up, as in ...
Forum Discussion
brholt wrote:
How long do you batteries last now? Knowing that it would be easier to estimate.
We find camping that a 150 watt panel often will not keep up in winter for us. The problems seem to be:
1) It's cold out in winter and the furnace uses significant power.
2) The batteries are cold so less current available.
3) when it's sunny the sun is still low and the daylight hours are short so we don't get near the solar contribution we get in summer
4) being in the PNW we are cloudy a lot and often in forests which restricts sunlight even more.
You will still get hurt by 2 and 3, and it sounds like 4 isn't a problem. The real wild card is 1, how much heating you do. (I am assuming you have LED lights, otherwise the lighting draw may be more than you think)
I only sometimes turn on heat to take chill out, runs about 10mins.
I am in the PSW sun is really not a problem :)
No LED's but like I said, really don't use the lights, maybe 15mins at night.
