Question: solar panels

Hi

I have in total 320 watts of solar panels, 2 Trojan batteries wired in series to give me 12v as they are only 6v each but 240a/h in capacity and a 1300 watt true sine wave inverter, why true wave, because a lot of electronic equipment these days do not like modified sine wave inverters all wired up with the correct gauge of wire to prevent burn outs. Ok a lot of you might say that it is not worth the expense well I try to avoid caravan sites that force me to buy and use a hookup, why, and here you might be amazed at what I am going to tell you.
Caravan sites are bound by law to not sell electricity for more than what they buy it for, how they get around what they charge is they input factors like installation, upkeep etc etc.
I did some calculations as to how much power a normal caravan uses, and here I mean in summer, not in winter when the heaters are on and steam is coming out of every opening in the caravan. Normally a caravan uses about 2 amps per hour of power, over a 24 hour period that equates to about 576 watts, so for say a 10 day holiday that is 5760 watts. Domestic electricity costs 9p per kilowatt hour so for 5760 watts the cost is just under 52p for the whole 10 days and the campsite is charging you, at the lowest I have come across, £30 for the 10 days, that is why I try whenever possible to go hookup free.

Personally I would not go below an 80 watt solar panel so it has enough output to charge the leisure battery. I went for the free standing 100 w type because I did not want the additional weight on the caravan axel. The car nearly always just has me and the wife in it so a bit of extra weight in the boot makes no difference to the total load of the caravan. However as nearly every where has hookup these days I very rarely use it.
They defiantly work but even the smaller sites have electric points, so it just becomes another think to carry around.

Damion, i have 2X80 watt panels fixed on the roof and would always recommend as being one of the first things i would buy if finances allowed. But solar panels on their own are not much good if you dont have sufficient batteries (i have 3X110Amp and i dont need to rely on any other source of power. When i'm using a 3000watt inverter etc etc, yes you can run out but just show some common sense and you'll be OK. It's not just about saving on site fee's it's about when you go to rallies or the motorhome shows where's there's no electric.
Good luck
Keith