Many static caravan owners would be more inclined to purchase solar panels for their Static Caravans if they were more aware of the efficiency and economy of using solar energy. It’s now possible to lower your carbon footprint even when you are on holiday and at the same time reduce your gas and electricity bills.
Environmentally friendly solar panels can be a hard sell for solar energy dealers because of the many myths that surround them including the “difficulty” in storing energy and the fact that many people don’t realise that they function with or without direct sunlight.
If you are considering purchasing a new caravan, Willerby produces a fully fitted solar powered caravan so this would be a good option to choose if you want to go “Green”. This type of static caravan will certainly generate enough electricity to offset the cost of traditional electrical consumption for your holidays and since the electricity is fed into the National Grid you’ll never notice the difference. Solar panels on the Willerby are fitted to only one side of the van so are unobtrusive from an aesthetic point of view.
Running your holiday home off solar panels
If you want to convert your existing static caravan, a professional solar energy installer will first measure your van to work out how many solar panels you need. Clearly, if you rent your caravan out you’ll need a more robust system than if you only use the caravan for your own holidays periodically.
The installer will place the solar panels so that they are south facing and not in the shade. They can be attached to a frame on the ground if required.
On holiday you will use approximately 1 kW per hour and in the summer 250 watts of solar panel will provide sufficient energy for that. In the winter you will need more.
It’s not a bad idea to keep a small emergency generator, just in case you don’t generate enough power but it’s unlikely unless there is no sun for the whole of the summer!
Where to purchase solar panels
Ask your holiday park operator for contact details, they usually have a host of suppliers and tradespeople in their databases that they have used and can recommend. It is better to engage the services of a solar energy engineer that has worked on the holiday park before. You could also look around the park to see if there are any other solar powered caravans and ask the owners who they used. It’s also great to give the work to someone local to keep local businesses alive.
