Solar Install On A Budget! - Project Van Life UK

0:01 [Music]

0:28 hello everybody welcome to a very quick video um we're actually out and about at the moment in north yorkshire and we made a couple of changes last week or so to the van i thought did you very quick update what i've been doing uh first thing fellow cosmetic but they do work quite well of these little things

0:46 and just along there i'll stick on wind deflectors now they do look kind of cosmetic but they do have a really handy purpose it means we can actually have the window cracked down here at night and not worry about the chance of any rain coming in really handy for getting some airflow

1:04 it's a little bit stuffy inside especially with the sort of heat that we've been having lately really helps out and we actually used it for the air show that we went to and was absolutely brilliant um kept a nice bit of airflow through kept the cab nice and fresh and stopped any sort of condensation

1:18 forming yeah so we were running so 30 odd degrees outside so yeah it really helped out um not too expensive but i wanted the stick on ones go on the outside rather than the ones that go into the character the ones that go into the channel you basically lose that much of your actual side window as well which i

1:36 didn't really want uh but yeah they're quite a good uh good compromise and the adhesive that they stick on with is uh i know it must be made of magic or something works really well and up on top now we've got a pair of these 50 watt solar panels wired in parallel and off through a wiring gland straight down the inside

1:58 there um i was that impressed with the portable setup that i did there i bought another panel uh component install on the top now these are semi-flexible panels which are sort of weatherproofed those are designed to be used outdoors and basically what i've done i've screwed them down in each corner with a

2:19 lot to see them behind them sealed down on each of the high spots on the roof and so a nice bit of sealant along the front here so there's no wind getting under it and lifting it or whatever um and everything so p clipped down everywhere there's a screw gone through there's a load of sealant behind it as

2:35 well so there's no chance of any water ingress or causing problems with corrosion um over there where the cable goes in that's a reasonable size hole for the two cables to drop down down to the inside actually goes inside the cab just above the headliner and then down to the solar controller that i'd already

2:53 got put in before um but yeah it works brilliantly um it's a semi-sunny morning we're not in full sunlight here uh but with having the fridge run last night we had the lights on everything as we normally would do within about an hour this morning the batteries now are fully topped up at

3:16 13.3 four which is where i've set the uh the float voltage on the solar controller to go um absolutely s stunning better quality with these uh these solar panels uh those are 49 quid each i think the extension cable that i bought i think that was about 15 quid with the ends made up

3:35 and the little y connector to actually pair the uh the solar panels in parallel i think that was about if i remember rightly about 14 quid so a relatively cheap setup and it works absolutely brilliantly certainly if we live in the van anywhere for you know more than a day we're not going

3:54 to run the engine i'll have no problem at all with the the power usage whatsoever um it's also meant that yeah we actually did wash the van for the first time since october it actually had a word of a watch uh because the roof was rather grim lots of dents and bits and bobs in it which we've got out and uh

4:12 so it's now as clean as we can get it without uh taking paint off so yeah quite happy with that and that's the whole controller during what's coming in at the moment looks like it's floating around 13 volts at the mix we're not in direct sunlight but it's actually brought the battery up

4:29 from sort of one bar down first thing about an hour ago as of up to where it was classes full now so yeah i'm really impressed with it i wasn't sure about the solar controller being absolutely amazing because it is only a cheap one uh i was looking at uh possibly actually change it for a proper mppt controller

4:51 but what it seems to achieve i'm actually quite happy with it i'm going to give it a bit longer test um before i make a decision on that but yeah um blown away with what actually uh what managed to achieve with it it's not what i was expecting at all uh so yeah definitely uh well worth a look at those solar panels

5:11 i'll pop a link to the uh the panels down below uh looks like i just got from amazon they're not expensive uh but it's one of the few that have got a decent review on there about the fact that they do work and they work well and so the power output is what's actually been rated so it doesn't

5:29 need to make a change these days that you're actually getting something that you're actually paying for so there you go very quick update a couple of bits that we've been doing with it and yeah i'm impressed with the results um it's mostly just cosmetic bits of bob's now that we're doing with

5:46 it um bit of maintenance coming up for a service soon as well um because we'll hit the the mighty six thousand mile in it uh so i'll dump the oil and do that um the service should be at once every twenty one thousand on these which is ridiculously high uh so what i'm gonna do so give that to

6:04 about every six thousand it doesn't hurt the engine at all and it keeps everything in tip-top condition um as far as other bits go we've just had the most monumental heat wave this first time ever we've actually hit 41 degrees in the uk um completely unprecedented situation with the weather

6:25 um inside the van it got ridiculously hot as you can expect i mean in the house it's ridiculously hot but um a couple of little bits that we found was the lino it's rippled a little bit in the heat uh but to be expected there's a lot of heat went on the ceiling being plastic has been absolutely

6:48 perfect um there's been no other issues at all around the van it's handled it absolutely perfect so with those extreme temperatures it's not a problem at all um the other bit that we'll give a quick update on is the little usb tap um we bought that back in april and charged it once

7:10 and we've used it almost every weekend since the middle of may and it still has an idea charge that gives you some idea of how good the battery is i might even treat you to charge this weekend just to you know sort of give it a little treat uh but yeah they do seem to be really good on the battery

7:26 life and it just keeps on doing its job properly absolutely brilliant um but yeah it's it's working brilliantly we've had no issues at all actually using the van and yeah chuffed a bit absolutely chuffed bits so much so that was finding excuses not to go away at the weekend at the moment but uh yeah we'll

7:47 see if we're heading back up to the lakes though uh got a bit of an extended trip planned for there so that'll be coming up soon but yeah for now we'll uh sort of crack on and have a wander around the north yorkshire moors i think but uh thanks for watching looks like if you like the video please do hit that

8:02 thumbs up really helps the channel out and uh if you're not subscribed please do hit the subscribe button um it's free of charge but helps me out no end if you can do that be absolutely fantastic and as always thanks for watching we'll see you again next time take care [Music]

8:31 you