zlacker

>>bookof+(OP)
So living on a narrowboat in the UK this is something I have experience with. We have a 335 W panel with an MPPT connected to a 200 Ah 12 V flooded lead acid battery. The battery in reality has a capacity of half that and in the 6 years of seasonality it has probably halved.

A few things :

* you don't need a fridge in winter so you can just turn it off. * charging battery banks / laptops in sunny periods results in the battery bank being useful in times when the weather isn't so kind. * no amount of solar is enough in the deep of winter. * any amount of solar is too much in the height of summer. * pubs are great for charging devices. * lead acid batteries last substantially longer if you only let them drop to half their true capacity and regularly charge them. Yes alternatives exist but there's something to be said for making what you have work for as long as possible.

>>marksb+ll
> no amount of solar is enough in the deep of winter

> any amount of solar is too much in the height of summer

I totally agree. I can't understand how it why solar is promoted, when the winter is when you need more energy as you're in more, heating your house, etc. You can't store your summer's energy till the winter.

>>verisi+Co
The UK is a further north than all of the US except Alaska. Seattle is about the same latitude as Paris, New York and Chicago the same as Madrid, and Los Angeles and Houston the same as North Africa.

Solar is never likely to be as important in the UK as it is for the US, but even so it seems it can be helpful because solar generation is at its highest during the summer when wind generation (over a quarter of UK total generation) is lowest.