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  • Solar panels

    Hi all,
    Planning on fitting a solar panel to my T4 in the new year and will document it here with plenty of pictures, am looking at 100w flexible panel, I have read all the info I can find and aware of the issues of overheating panels failing etc so am going to try using these brackets http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2522203881...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT to minimise the amount of sikaflex I need to put on the roof but also this will allow a little air flow underneath to help (I hope).
    I will add a few pictures of my planned cable run and would appreciate comments as I was hoping to just fix the cables along the off side edge of the roof, run in the gap above the tailgate door then use the gaiter that houses the speaker wires in the tailgate to bring the cables into the van as it already has a split in it. Once in the van it shouldn't be a problem running to my leisure battery and engine battery.
    I am looking at buying the kit from here http://www.photonicuniverse.com/en/c...-or-yacht.html as I am thinking it would be better than taking a risk on a mix and match setup from different suppliers or chancing a fleabay purchase?

    Please do jump on in with thoughts, comments and help, especially if I am about to do something horribly wrong to Tilly ( my T4).

    Cheers
    Last edited by Jamieb158; 13 January 2016, 12:23 PM.

  • #2
    planning on doing this myself soon just trying to decide which set up to use. so am going to watch closely how yours goes

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    • #3
      I read recently on a landrover forum that the new semi-flexible panels are a lot more heat tolerant, might be worth looking into? Im interested in this, want a couple of panels between the ridges on my roof.

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      • #4
        Well i went for this one in the end http://www.beamled.com/100w-semi-fle...-5m-cable.html, entered the code jan10 and got 10% off so only cost me 144 quid for the full kit. delivered very quickly, packaging was a bit poor but the panel was in good order and is far more sturdy than i thought they would be, corner holes have a rivet around and look rock solid. I went for one just to charge my leisure battery instead of a dual charger as everything runs from that even the vans stereo.
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        unpacked everything to check it was ok, got the volt meter out to see what it was putting out in the living room before going any further and all was good
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        Last edited by Jamieb158; 13 January 2016, 12:24 PM.

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        • #5
          brackets arrived, covered the bolts and sprayed them tornado red to match the van just to try and make it less obvious, did a trial fitting, washers were a bit too small so got some wider ones to avoid splitting the corners
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          • #6
            spoke to my local hardware shop about sikaflex and they looked it up and recommended using CT1, watched a video on youtube and seems it will do the job really well.
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            Fitting is really straightforward, dry fitted the panel and brackets to decide where best to mount on the roof then marked with a felt pen. applied the CT1 to the underside of the mounts then put in place. while there was still movement i decided to loose fit the panel over the bolts to make sure the holes matched as it dried then left it overnight to set (van is in a secure compound).

            wrapped the two cables in red tape to help protect them and run to the side gutter on the roof then used the double sided tape that came with the brackets to stick down the two connectors in the gutter edge.
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            Last edited by Jamieb158; 13 January 2016, 12:15 PM.

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            • #7
              you can see i marked the positive cable every metre with a stripe of red tape so once it was fed into the van i would know which was which. if you forget then i guess you could use a volt meter to get a positive or negative reading and figure it out.

              Fed the two cables down into the corner of the tailgate and as i already had a small split into the rubber gaiter i fed them through this and into the van then sealed the split.
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              cables then run down into the cupboard where my battery is housed and cut to length. The instructions said to connect the battery to the control unit first then connect the solar panel so used the spare cable cut to put some connectors on and attach to the battery then connected the panel all nice and simple, light came on to show the battery was low.

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              Last edited by Jamieb158; 13 January 2016, 12:16 PM.

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              • #8
                couple of shots of the panel in situ. just need to secure the wires on the roof and use a touch up stick to go over the white adhesive and any other chips on the brackets. last picture shows the larger washers.
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                Last edited by Jamieb158; 13 January 2016, 12:21 PM.

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                • #9
                  good price you got there. Great how to photos and instructions. Mines got barn doors and of course batteries under the drivers seat but looks fairly straight forward to do

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                  • #10
                    Feeling this mate I got a tornado red van too.. They bugger than 3in them side bars? Where you get hem from matey?

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                    • #11
                      There's plenty of cable with the kit so you could mount the controller nearer to your battery then buy some good cable to fit between the controller and battery

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                      • #12
                        They were already on her when I bought it?

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                        • #13
                          Is this the new biard back contact flexible panel, I'm on my second biard panel and that has just failed. The first failed after around 15 months and this replacement has lasted the same.
                          They replaced the first failed one with no issues so hoping I'll get the same good service for this one,but may consider the new back contact one if it's more durable.
                          Don't really want to be replacing them every year or so !

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                          • #14
                            Been on a few months now, still going strong, just a regular flexi panel

                            Sent from my SM-T533 using Just T4s mobile app

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                            • #15
                              hi sorry to say this but that set up is bad, the panel is going to flex and flap around when you drive it causing the panel to fail, also the charge controller you have is garbage.
                              how do I know I here you ask, well iv already been testing solar panels on my van for the last 3 years and had that same controller. the controller you have doesn't have good charge parameters and you need to invest in a good one with tracking function especially with such a small panel. i originally fitted a 65w in the side window and a 85w in the tailgate (inside) . the side panel didn't do much and the tailgate was better but if not facing the sun the charge was low. in the winter the setup didn't keep battery charged, but in the summer it kept the battery charged (168amp).after a year of testing I decided this is not going to charge both battery and run stuff as well so I ditched everything and bought 3 flexi panels cut to my own dimensions to fit in-between the roof stiffeners. 3 panels, two 90w and one 75w and a good controller, the results are both battery's in the summer are always fully charged no matter how long I leave it, I could leave my stereo on all year and the battery would still be charged.in the summer I made 4 cups of coffee every day and this had no affect on battery, also cooked and stew with slow cooker whilst making coffee and the battery was still untouched. next test is to run my water heater every day in the winter to see if the panels can keep up, I will post up in the spring how this turned out. if anybody is interested I can post pics up of wot I have done.

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