As we are running a business while living on the road, it is super important for us that we always have plenty of power. We rely on constant power to charge laptops, cameras, phones, etc. We have over 200AH of battery that we have to keep charged while living off-grid. We charge the batteries through the alternator while driving, but sometimes this gets a little tricky when parked up for long periods of time. We have a small solar panel on the front of the troopy, which gives us charge when parked facing the sun. The only problem with this is that we try to avoid parking in the sun as the car gets too hot inside. For the first two months of the trip, we also had a 120w folding glass solar panel. However, we then had to take it home as it was just too big to keep travelling with.
We fixed all of our problems with the “
REDARC 115W SOLAR BLANKET”. Because it’s a ‘blanket’ it folds up to around 350mm x 310mm and easily slots in behind our seats and never gets in the way. When unpacked it’s 1080mm x 930mm and weighs next to nothing compared to a standard glass solar panel. Therefore, it’s really easy to move around and follow the sun. Another awesome benefit of the blanket is that it folds to suit the landscape. Unlike the hard panels which can be hard to set up on uneven grounds.
Our
REDARC blanket puts in more than enough power to keep our batteries nice and topped up. We use it nearly every time we park up somewhere in the sun, just because it is so quick to set up. The blanket uses an Anderson plug making it even easier to hook up and doesn’t leave any room for a dodgy connection. We have put the blanket to the test in salty, sandy and dusty conditions and it all just wipes straight off.
It’s really important to keep your battery topped up. If you keep draining them or only ever half charge them, they get used to being at that level of charge. The battery will no longer be capable of charging to 100%. Not giving your batteries as much charge as they need will affect the life of your battery. This is why it’s so important to use quality products when charging your batteries. They’re not cheap to replace.
Having a solar set up in your camper is an environmentally friendly and cost-effective way to provide power while traveling. If you are planning on traveling to remote areas or camps where there’s no mains power, solar is definitely the way to go. You will end up saving money in the long run when compared to running a generator. It is also far better for the planet and makes no noise, which equals happy neighbors while camped up. Make sure to buy quality solar equipment such as the REDARC SOLAR BLANKET. Therefore, you won’t have to keep re-buying parts when they break.
1 comment
Thanks for explaining in a easy way to understand, you’ve cleared up a lot of questions I had .
http://www.parramattagolfclub.com.au/
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