Cowboy7307 wrote:

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looking at putting solar onto van looking at something off ebay,

its only to do lights, fridge, and tv

the battery that is on van is a DC 12v 115 and it does every thing we want it to do, just have to find a way to charge it while camping ,and daylight is free

so what size panel should i be looking at getting

thank

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Hi Cowboy7307,

Had a few answers so far but I will take this approach. You said that the battery does all you want. So it is 115AH and if you run it down to no more than 50% then you are using say 60 AH. So you need to be able to get that into the battery again every day. On a normal day that will take about a 200W panel to get it in by early afternoon. On a bad day lots more. 

There is also the decision about whether to roof mount them, where the efficiency is lower being flat so you need more, say 20%. Or have portable ones which are more work and ackward but can pickup more power, particularly it you need it. Get several smaller ones then to make them easier to handle.

My recommendation is to get at least twice what you need and that will probably cover it with only some bad days needing a charge by the car or ?

Of course you need a regulator and a MPPT one is better than a simple one. Mount it close to the battery and use plugs if you have portable panels. Good size cables. 6 square mm not 6 mm diameter wires, note the difference. 

I have bought my panels, several lots, for various jobs, off ebay not some high priced dealer. Same for the regulator and wire. Have not had any duds but I do know what I am doing. You can get panels for about $1-1.20 a watt, freighted to your door. Buy a more expensive regulator than the very cheap ones.

Jaahn