Does anyone actually get usable solar through a UK winter with a small van setup?

I've been running a 200W panel on my Transit Custom since September and it's been brilliant through the summer, but now we're heading into November I'm starting to wonder if I've been kidding myself about year-round viability. Yesterday I got a peak of about 8Ah across the whole day despite a brief sunny spell in the afternoon. My 100Ah lithium feels like it's permanently sitting at 60–70% and I'm having to be really careful with the kettle and the diesel heater fan.

The panel is a Renogy 200W monocrystalline mounted flat on the roof (I know, I know — the tilt angle is rubbish, but it's a van so not much I can do). Running a Victron 75/15 MPPT controller. Most of my consumption is pretty modest — 12V compressor fridge, phone and laptop charging, a few LED lights — probably 30–40Ah a day on average. The heater fan is the main culprit at around 8–10Ah if I'm running it overnight.

Has anyone found practical ways to close the gap through December and January without adding a hook-up or a second alternator feed? Wondering whether a second 200W panel is actually worth it in winter given the low sun angle, or whether I'd be better off just accepting it and reducing consumption further.

@LouiseJames honestly this is the question I keep asking myself too — I've got a tiny house setup rather than a van but the solar struggle is real either way.

What's your panel angle like? Fixed roof mount on a Transit is going to be pretty flat, which is brutal in winter when the sun barely gets above 30° even at midday.

I ended up adding a Victron SmartSolar controller just to get proper data on what I was actually harvesting — the numbers in November were genuinely depressing. We're talking 10-20% of summer figures on a good day.

Main questions I'd ask:

• What's your battery capacity?
• Do you have any shore power backup option?

Realistically for a van in the UK, winter solar is supplementary at best. Most people I've seen on here end up running an alternator charger as the actual backbone November through February.

GeoffKing83 | 847 posts | ⭐ Trusted Member

@LouiseJames short answer — yes, but temper your expectations massively. I ran a 200W panel through two winters in a Sprinter and the honest reality is you're looking at maybe 20-40 minutes of decent generation on a clear day, often nothing useful for days at a stretch.

The panel angle matters enormously in winter — sun sits so low in the sky that a flat roof mount is basically decorative. If you can tilt yours even to 45-60 degrees south-facing on the days you're parked up, you'll notice a real difference.

I'd treat winter solar as a supplement rather than your main source and budget for shore power or a B2B charger as backup. Don't ditch it though — those occasional clear December days can genuinely surprise you.

@LouiseJames short answer — yes, but your expectations need a serious reset.

Running a 200W panel through winter in the UK you're realistically looking at maybe 20-40% of what you got in July. Grey days you might squeeze out 10-15W on a good hour. It's not nothing but it won't keep up with heavy loads.

What actually saved me was pairing with a proper shore power hookup wherever possible and treating solar as a top-up rather than the main source Nov-Feb. Victron MPPT helps squeeze every last bit out of weak light too — massive difference vs a cheap controller.

EV charging off a van setup in winter is basically a non-starter unless your array is considerably bigger. That's just reality.

StuWhite94 | 203 posts

@LouiseJames Worth adding something nobody's mentioned yet — panel angle makes a massive difference in winter specifically. The sun sits so low in the sky that a flat roof-mounted panel is working at a real disadvantage compared to summer. If you can find a way to prop yours up even temporarily when parked up, you can claw back a surprising amount. I started using a cheap adjustable tilt bracket and noticed a genuine improvement.

Also keep your panel clean — fallen leaves, morning frost, bird muck all stack up and rob you of what little light there is. A quick wipe every couple of days costs nothing.

@GeoffKing83 is right though, tempering expectations is the main thing. Plan around 20-30% of your rated output on a decent winter day and you won't be caught short.

PhilJackson | 412 posts

My tiny house setup taught me that a UK winter sun is basically just the sky's way of gaslighting you — @LouiseJames I'd seriously look at a Fogstar 200Ah lithium so you're drawing from stored summer optimism rather than crying at your Victron app watching 8W trickle in at 2pm on a Tuesday in Wolverhampton.

StormyHermit | 847 posts

@LouiseJames Honestly, 200W through a UK winter isn't useless, but you'll want to get realistic about your actual consumption first. I spent two winters convincing myself the solar "should" be enough before I finally logged everything properly — turned out my diesel heater's control board and a few USB devices were quietly draining far more than I'd accounted for.

What's your battery capacity? That's almost the more important number here. A decent battery bank lets you bank the occasional decent day and spread it across the grey ones. Some days in December you'll barely see 10-15W peak, but you'll still get something accumulating across daylight hours.

@StuWhite94 makes a fair point about angle — if you can prop the panel even slightly south-facing on stationary days, it genuinely helps more in winter than summer given how low the sun sits.