Winter is Coming

  
Rodney fitted the solar panel last week. It started raining as soon as he’d squirted glue onto it so he threw a bit of a paddy. The rain was my fault. He wouldn’t let me help so I took the dog for a walk instead, though whilst on the walk it occurred to me that I’d just left him, the clumsiest man on earth, alone on top of a van, in the rain, with wires in his hand. I jogged back and was relieved (sort of) to find him still breathing; still in a mood, but still breathing.

Clumsiness, moodiness and rainyness aside, he did a tidy job and we are now basking in solar wonderment. This blog comes to you courtesy of the sun’s power. We are at one with the sun. May it forever shine on our roof.

  
We went for a 100 watt semi flexible panel from Photonic Universe for the special offer price of £140. There are cheaper semi-flexible panels out there but we went for the best currently available for our purposes, in the hope that it will last longer. We went with semi-flexible because weight is a key concern for our old van (they’re a lot lighter than the rigid panels) and because we didn’t want to drill holes in the roof. We bought a 30A solar controller from Amazon for £20 which seems to work just fine at the moment, though we’re a bit suspicious of its cheapness. Add on to that a couple of cables and the whole system came in at about £200. We have the option of adding another panel in future if the 100 watt doesn’t seem to be enough, but so far it appears sufficient for our needs (charging phones, laptop, lights, water pump and fans).

Our dog and house sitting duties sadly ended last week and we are now back down south for Rodney’s work. They are filming on location for the next fortnight so we have found a nearby site to park up at close to the lovely Tring Park.

  
We’re paying £6 per night and for that we get access to drinking water and waste disposal, and a wonderful view of the Chilterns. There’s no toilet or shower, but as we have both on board (in our tiny bathroom) we’re doing just fine.

Here’s where the magic happens…

  
However, as Ned Stark would tell you, a thousand times (were his head not on a stick), winter is coming. Our Repti-zoo thermometer was at a chilly 9 degrees when we woke up this morning and my teeth were chattering as I tried and failed to turn the heater on. It was a small wake up call to our non-planning ways. My next task is to consult Google on ‘where in Europe is warm(er) in winter?’

If the search returns a ‘nowhere you silly cow’, then we may be booking those flights to India after all. Forgive us our indecisiveness, for we know not whether we’re coming or going. Namaste!