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Looking for something that can be taken out of a van and put in a suitable position that can be used to charge stuff (maybe by usb?), potentially even put a bit into the leisure battery. I guess there's 2 main things there, panel, some sort of controller and then maybe consideration of whether that goes into a battery or has the right voltages to directly power something.
Any recommendations?
I’ve got what they call a briefcase type, it unfolds to about 2 x A3 size. Even with a solar charge controller it’s useless really.
I think you’d need at least a 40w (max) panel.
That might give you 2 or 3 amps in strong sunshine.
I have one of these 20W panel and controller kits. Even with the dumb controller it does actually generate just under 20W at midday facing into sun so should give an idea of the area you'll need. Downside is that you can't use it as a USB charger without a battery, because the controller itself, despite having USB charging ports, is battery powered.
For van leisure battery charging we have 2x100W panels and a MPPT controller, but obviously not easily portable.