How does that old saying go? You can have cheap, fast, or good, but not all three. In this video I demonstrate how I added a solar panel to my van to recharge my power generator. The way I power my van is fast and good, but it may not be the cheapest way to do things.

There are three parts to any solar-powered system. The system needs to be able to collect energy, store energy, and use that energy. Collecting the energy is pretty simple; that’s what solar panels do. Those last two parts can be really simple, or really complicated. The simplest solution is to purchase a power station, like one from Jackery, Bluetti, or AllPowers. Those off the shelf solutions contain essentially everything else you’ll need. If you are so inclined, you could also build your own solution from scratch. To do that you would need a battery (or batteries), a charge controller (to stop the batteries from charging when they are at 100%), a power inverter (to convert your storeed energy from 12 volts to other voltages), plus lots of cables, wired, adapters, and a bit of electrical knowledge. You might be able to save a few hundred dollars that way; like I said at the beginning of this post, the trade off for cheap is easy.

My solar and power solution has only two components, a 200w solar panel and a 2,000Wh power station, both from AllPowers. This post is not sponsored by AllPowers and I paid full retail price for both of those items. The cables coming out of the solar panel were only 3′ long and so I ended up purchasing a set of 10′ MC4 Extension Cables. The solar input on the side of my battery is an XT60 (sometimes referred to as an “Anderson” port) and so I also purchased an MC4-to-XT60 adapter cable.

All of this stuff seemed intimidating at first, but once I figured out what each connector was called and that Amazon sold adapters that allowed me to easily switch between the two, everything fell into place prettyu quickly. I read online that people have mounted solar panels to their roofs using either 3m VHB Heavy Duty Mounting Tape: 3M VHB (Very High Bond) Heavy Duty Mounting Tape or EternaBond Tape, so I used both. Another option would have been to use screws or some sort of custom mounting bracket to attach the panel to the roof, but this seemed simply and efficient.

There have been entire books written about solar panels and solar systems and so I feel bad for only being able to say, “I plugged the panel into the power station and it began working,” but that’s what happened.

As I mentioned in the video, when it comes to just how many watts to expect to collect from a solar panel, “your mileage may vary” is an understatement. In my personal but limited experience, by pointing a solar panel directly at the sun on an absolutely perfect day, I was able to collect about 85% of the advertised rating. In the much-less desirable configuration of placing it flat on my van’s roof, the best I’ve seen so far is approximately 65% of the advertised rating. On a bright sunny day with no clouds in the sky, the most wattage I’ve been coming in from my 200 watt solar panel is about 135 watts. Things like clouds and share drop that number drastically.

That being said, my refrigerator draws around 35w and my TV, along with my Roku and other electronic gadgets, draw almost another 20w. With 55 watts going out and 135 watts doing in, my battery stays at 100% all day long. But it’s the night’s that get ya — no sun means no solar, and you’ll start to see the effects pretty quickly on your battery’s overall percentage. On my last trip I was able to keep everything charged and running without resorting to shore power.

Although it exceeds the scope of this article, it is relatively simple to daisy chain solar panels and I am considering adding a second 200w panel to the roof of my van. That won’t help at night when after the sun has gone down, but assuming clear skies it should double the speed at which the battery charges the following day.

I don’t know very much about solar power or battery systems, which is why I went with the simplest setup I could come up with. My system literally involved plugging a solar panel into a power station, which Use for all my power needs. If you have thoughts, feedback, questions or suggestions, shoot them my way!