Never Enough Solar
Our camper is equipped with 400Ah of lithium batteries, offering an array of outlets and options to utilise that power efficiently. My wife manages to keep all her essentials running while camping, just as she does at home. This includes charging her computer, iPad, phone, and so forth. Additionally, we have Starlink operational 24/7 for our internet needs, not to forget the inverter powering all these devices. Just the inverter running in standby mode consumes about 2Ah—totaling 48Ah over 24 hours.
Monitoring our usage over a recent weekend—with the fridge and all the above mentioned appliances running—our daytime consumption was around 12Ah. We were camping in Victoria in March, where sunrise is around 7am, with usable charging time starting at about 8am, and sunset around 8pm, marking the end of effective solar generation at about 7pm. This provided us with approximately 11 hours of solar generation each day to offset the 13 hours of non-solar generation time (overnight), in addition to covering daytime usage. It’s important to note that this scenario occurs in March; the situation could be significantly different in the winter months, where daylight and, consequently, solar generation time may be limited to around 8 hours or less, weather permitting.
Our 13-hour non-generation period used approximately 120Ah, while our 11-hour daytime solar generation contributed about 130Ah. Our setup included 700W of solar panels: a 100W fixed roof panel that received morning sunlight only, and portable panels comprising 400W and 200W that we adjusted throughout the day for optimal exposure. These panels generated approximately 25-28Ah in real-world conditions, from 20-degree morning temperatures to 35 degrees in the afternoon.
This solar setup barely recharged our system by sunset or came close to doing so.
On a winter day or during overcast conditions, our setup would struggle to keep up with our daily usage, let alone recharge our system. My brother, who has 700W of fixed solar panels on his camper, parked under trees during our trip, only managed to generate around 10Ah throughout the day. He had to run a 2kVA generator all day to supplement his power needs and provide a slight recharge.
Based on our experience, sustaining off-grid living for more than 48 hours in overcast or rainy weather would be challenging, impossible even, requiring a powered solution.
I plan to replace our 200W panel with another 400W panel, upgrading our portable camper solar capacity to 800W, with the potential to expand to 1000W. Additionally, I have a fridge in the ute tub powered by a 100Ah lithium battery; I will use the 200W panel for that but can interchange as necessary. Even with a total of 900W on the camper, I remain sceptical about its adequacy for sustained off-grid living in winter or overcast conditions.
When it comes to off-grid camping, whether in a camper, caravan, or any vehicle, the importance of solar power cannot be overstated. You simply can’t have enough solar power to maintain off-grid autonomy effectively.
