Advice · 9 min read
Off-grid power that actually works
How to size solar, batteries and charging for the way you really travel, rather than the brochure version.
Start with consumption, not generation. Add up what you actually run in a day — fridge, lights, water pump, laptop, phones — and you will usually land between 40 and 70 amp-hours.
That number sets the battery. Lithium gives you nearly all of its rated capacity; lead-acid gives you half before you damage it. A 100Ah lithium bank covers most two-person setups for two days with no input at all.
Solar then tops it up. In British June, 200W of roof panel returns roughly 60–80Ah a day. In December, expect a fifth of that — which is why a decent B2B charger from the engine matters more than another panel.
Finally, be honest about hook-up. If you use campsites four nights out of five, a modest system and a good charger beats an expensive off-grid build you never test.
