Stacey
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Can you run a little caravan on solar?The plan is to have a small (12ft) caravan outside for my eldest to move into so my 13yr old can have his own room (don't tell anyone though - it's not allowed  ) His concern about it is that he has a fair bit of music equipment and he's worred about damp. He'll need heat and light, obviously so I was wondering if solar panels would provide enough energy for him to have heat and light and run a small dehumidifier? I know nothing about solar or any kind of power come to that  so I don't know if it's possible. It would have to be a bodge it yourself off ebay job as I can't afford posh panels or anything.
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RichardW
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Not for a reasonable cost.
Light yes, music yes, heat no
You would need solar panels, charge controler, batteries, inverters, thick wires.
To give you some idea of costs.
to run a 1kw heater for 1 hour you would need
1200w inverter
combined battery bank size of 300amp/hrs
solar panel sized to charge bats each day of 300watts in the summer & 1200watts in the winter (see the problem worst performance at time of greatest need)
The solar panels alone would cost £1k to £4k JUST to run the heater for one hour per day.
Cheaper to run cable out from the house.
However for lights only its a much better bet as you could light the van for 5 hours using low energy / wattage 12 v bulbs using a single battery & one 100watt solar panel.
If you realy want to take this further I will do acurate figures on it but its a bit of a non starter to be honest
Richard
PS why is it not legal? Most houses have a right to site a tempoary structure as long as the useage is incidental to the ocupation of the house which your use does come under.
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vegplot
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It's certainly possible for the electricity, for which you'll to work out what the average usage will be. From there you can work out what size battery pack and no. / wattage of solar PV's you'll be needing.
However, this won't be cheap, I'd budget around from £700 or so upwards, unless you can source second hand. A lot more cost effective solution is to run an armoured cable from your house supply out to the caravan (if it's reasonably close).
For heat, a small wood burner is cost effective (mind the fumes). Solar hot water will require a thermal store, again quite a large expense if buying off the shelf.
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Stacey
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| RichardW wrote: | Not for a reasonable cost.
Light yes, music yes, heat no
You would need solar panels, charge controler, batteries, inverters, thick wires.
To give you some idea of costs.
to run a 1kw heater for 1 hour you would need
1200w inverter
combined battery bank size of 300amp/hrs
solar panel sized to charge bats each day of 300watts in the summer & 1200watts in the winter (see the problem worst performance at time of greatest need)
The solar panels alone would cost £1k to £4k JUST to run the heater for one hour per day.
Cheaper to run cable out from the house.
However for lights only its a much better bet as you could light the van for 5 hours using low energy / wattage 12 v bulbs using a single battery & one 100watt solar panel.
If you realy want to take this further I will do acurate figures on it but its a bit of a non starter to be honest
Richard
PS why is it not legal? Most houses have a right to site a tempoary structure as long as the useage is incidental to the ocupation of the house which your use does come under. |
It's not that it's illegal - it's part of our tenancy agreement
Thanks both - looks like it's a no-go 
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RichardW
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How far from the house?
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Stacey
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35 - 40ft
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RichardW
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If safe a good quality extension cable (2.5mm2 artic cable).
Richard
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Stacey
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It's actually only a few feet from the goat shed, which has electricity but I was trying to save money. I can't cope with the fuel costs now, let alone when there's a 40% increase and an extra 'room' 
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RichardW
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Like most things its possible but costly to set up. Would take a very long time to pay back.
Richard
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Stacey
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That's the major problem with wanting to be 'greener' but being poverty stricken
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Jonnyboy
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What about 'eco' bulbs in the caravan.
Or maybe a set of headphones for him? 
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RichardW
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Its not the light or sound thats the problem its the heat. What about using the LPG gas fire? or wood stove?
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Stacey
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| Jonnyboy wrote: | What about 'eco' bulbs in the caravan.
Or maybe a set of headphones for him? |
He's a DJ, mixing his toons and dat.
I'm down wit da yoot ya knaw
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Stacey
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| RichardW wrote: | | Its not the light or sound thats the problem its the heat. What about using the LPG gas fire? or wood stove? |
I wouldn't trust him with a tilly lamp let alone a wood burner 
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vegplot
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| Stacey wrote: | | That's the major problem with wanting to be 'greener' but being poverty stricken |
That is a big issue. Being green is often seen as middle class, in the monetary sense. Something needs to be done to address that.
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