Campervan electrickery

[Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO]

Fitted a solar panel to my camper yesterday and now looking at what I can do with all that free electricity! I can get my hands on a mini projector for very cheap, but it runs on 230v. Looking at the plug, though, it's actually a transformer taking the supply to 12v dc. So rather than running an inverter to take dc to ac, then the transformer to take it back to dc, can I just cut the plug off and wire directly into a a 12v plug? Not sure how sensitive these little appliances are to a battery that might be 12.4v for example!

[Ian Kinder (Bagpuss) - Joint Peak District AO]

Hi Andrew, is this you back from your adventure?

 

It would be better to fit a 12V regulator to ensure nothing nasty gets passed to your devices. You may have one with the panel? 

 

or this:

 

https://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/led-drivers/7381577?cm_mmc=UK-PLA-DS3A-_-google-_-PLA_UK_EN_Displays_And_Optoelectronics-_-Led_Lighting_System_Components|Led_Drivers-_-PRODUCT_GROUP&matchtype=&aud-826607885427:pla-448230579044&s_kwcid=AL!7457!3!243856786484!!!g!448230579044!&gclid=CjwKCAiA0svwBRBhEiwAHqKjFg9SdCWe36Thoy7OXP9GtXp4VSP1CgcVeKPy1iJhK1RsX_DOIgQufBoC7s0QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

May do, depends on how much current your devices need.

 

[Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO]

Yep, been back a little while - updates long overdue now, but a combination of being busy getting started on the next phase of life, and not wanting to admit the trip of a lifetime is over have stopped me from posting yet! 

 

Ah yeah, a voltage regulator is probably a sensible plan. The projector is 2A but I'm sure I can get one rated a little higher. I could. Probably build one if I could remember my electronics modules from university! 

[BigSkyBrad]

Any panel over 10w will need to be run through a solar charge controller (PWM cheaper, MPPT better) before the ‘house’ battery, to ensure the battery won’t cook through over-voltage (typically a panel will give out 17v or more in full sun).

 

As for a 12v voltage regulator, one of these (below) is good, available on ebay. The right one will handle 8A or more, allowing multiple low amp ‘appliances’ to be regulated such as a small TV etc. A healthy battery sits at 12.7/12.8v, and when being charged will be bulking at 14.4-6v depending on the battery type and floating at 13.6, so voltage sensitive appliances will need to be regulated.

 

[Andrew O Byrne White - Ireland AO]

7 minutes ago, BigSkyBrad said:

Any panel over 10w will need to be run through a solar charge controller (PWM cheaper, MPPT better) before the ‘house’ battery, to ensure the battery won’t cook through over-voltage (typically a panel will give out 17v or more in full sun).

 

As for a 12v voltage regulator, one of these (below) is good, available on ebay. The right one will handle 8A or more, allowing multiple low amp ‘appliances’ to be regulated such as a small TV etc. A healthy battery sits at 12.7/12.8v, and when being charged will be bulking at 14.4-6v depending on the battery type and floating at 13.6, so voltage sensitive appliances will need to be regulated.

 

Lovely, thanks. It's a 160W panel and an MPPT controller I've fitted to it - the controller is capable of over 300W, but I definitely didn't want to be pumping more power into it than it could handle.