Camping solar power is so handy as it’s a silent and no-cost way to charge your deep cycle batteries and keep your Camping Fridge and other camp accessories running at their best. It isn’t hard to get your portable solar kit to work – all you need to do is ensure it iss set up and connected on any sunny day and you’re half way there! However if you want to make the most of the sun there are some very easy steps you can take, so read on for four of the best ways to make the most of your camping solar power!

1. The number one most important point is to make sure you’re always pointing your solar panel directly towards the sun – and this means both on the horizontal and vertical angle! It’s not ideal to be angling your camp solar panel sun to the west when the sun is rising in the east and similarly there’s not much good in standing your panel up vertically when the panel is directly above – in that case you’d want your solar panel laying as flat as possible. So the ultimate set up would be changed several times throughout the day – aiming the portable solar to the east directly at the sun for sunrise and the hours following, then inching the panel towards a west-facing angle throughout the day while also adjusting the vertical angle to best match the sun. That does sound like a lot of work though… so what if you just want to keep your solar panel in the one position? Well in Australia we’re in the southern hemisphere which means the sun is often to the north in the sky (towards the equator) and then the variation between summer and winter simply means it’s higher or lower in the sky. So, ideally aim your solar panel towards the north and then set the vertical angle to approximately the latitude of where you’re camping! So near Darwin, set the panels to 12°, in Brisbane set the panels to 27°, in Sydney or Perth set to just over 30° and Melbourne or Hobart around 40° – just check your VMS or even your phone maps for a general idea!
   
   
2. The next most important thing to consider is the heat of your 12V solar panels – as camping solar panels warm up to operating temperature they lose about 10% of their power output and the hotter they get the less they can output! So always allow your panels to take advantage of airflow where possible and don’t let them sit on a hot surface – grass is usually fine as it doesn’t absorb a lot of radiant heat, but sand, rock or road surface will get very hot in the heat of the sun and negatively affect your solar panel Don’t be tempted to shade your panels though to ‘keep them cool’ as even partial shading will also greatly affect the output! In fact, depending on your solar panels, even a small strip of shade along one edge may knock off around 50% of the possible output – not ideal when you’re trying to make the most of the sun!
   
   
3. Next up you have to consider the rest of the components of your portable solar setup. One of the most important things to do is reduce any excess wire length that you don’t need to prevent voltage drop and then ensure that you’re putting the solar controller (or solar regulator) as close as possible to the deep cycle battery you are charging. This is because the voltage that comes out of your solar panel is around 20V, meaning while not ideal, it’s not terrible if it suffers voltage drop at this point. Once it has passed through the regulator it’s likely going to be much closer to battery voltage – say around 13V, and any voltage after this point will affect charging drastically. Another important note is to be aware of the type of regulator your portable solar panel kit There is both MPPT and PWM and out of the two, the MPPT controller (or Maximum Power Point Tracking) is capable of making the most of your solar panel power. This is because it uses the entire power of the panel and then is able to output that power to suit what the battery requires. The PWM controller isn’t as sophisticated but is an old and reliable option and still widely used for that reason! PWM or Pulse Width Modulation, pulses power on and off for varying lengths of time to regulate how much charge is going into the battery.
   
   
   
4. Finally, you need to be aware of the fact that you should always make the most of the sun while it’s shining! So if you need to cool drinks down and you have plenty of sun then it’s a good time to make the most of your solar setup, as your fridge will be working hard and pulling lots of power from your battery which the solar will be able to make up for and still keep the battery charged up. Similarly if you’re using an inverter to charge a laptop or drone batteries, then make the most of the sun with your portable solar panel and charge the battery while the sun is up! This also ties in with the idea that you should always use your solar when possible to keep your battery charged up for the times you can’t – if you miss a day or two of use with your solar panel and then the weather changes you’ll be kicking yourself! The thing is, with the options these days it’s so easy to quickly set up a portable solar blanket, so you have no excuse!