HOW TO WIRE YOUR OWN SOLAR PANELS

Brands such as Goal Zero offer plug-and-play products that make set-up simple. Just buy a battery with built-in inverter and charge controller, and use standard MC4 cables to plug in your panels.

But you’ll find that wiring it yourself is not terribly difficult. Start by daisy chaining the panels together – each has a positive and negative cable, and polarity is denoted on both the male and female connections – and bringing them to the charge controller, which usually has a screen to show how much power they’re pulling in.

Wire that to a deep-cycle battery and finally to an inverter, for plugging in common electronics. Keep the charge controller, battery, and inverter all fairly close (roughly 1.5 m) to avoid wasting power. Insulate the battery, especially if you’ll be in places that will be very hot or very cold – I used reflective insulation. Lastly, install a direct connection for internal LED lights and a switch for easy access. For those living in a van or larger vehicle, a direct connection to a fridge or other small appliance makes sense as well.