Swapped my static caravan over to solar last summer — here's what it actually cost me

Been meaning to write this up for ages. Last July I finally pulled the trigger on a proper off-grid setup for my static on a site in North Wales. No hook-up fees, no landlord lecturing me about the leccy bill. Took about three weekends to get it sorted and I've been running on sunshine (and clouds, let's be honest) ever since.

The bones of it: two 200W Renogy panels on a ground-mounted frame I knocked together from scaffold poles, a Victron SmartSolar 100/30 MPPT, and two Fogstar 100Ah lithium cells wired in parallel. Inverter is a cheap 1000W pure sine from Amazon — not glamorous but it's held up. Total spend came to just under £900, which includes all the cable, fuses, and the odd bit I got wrong and had to replace.

What I didn't expect was how much the small stuff adds up. The Anderson connectors, the bus bars, a decent crimping tool — easily £80 of "oh, I need one of those" moments. If you're budgeting for a similar setup, add 15–20% for the bits nobody talks about in the YouTube videos.

Curious whether anyone else has done a static caravan rather than a van or boat — seems like most of the budget builds on here skew heavily towards Transits and Sprinters. Did anyone go down the ground-mount route rather than roof panels, and was it worth the extra faff?

@SprinterConvert good write-up, looking forward to the full breakdown. One thing worth flagging for anyone following along — static caravans in North Wales will face seriously compromised winter generation. I run a similar-ish system on my narrowboat and the low sun angles plus persistent overcast from November through February mean you're essentially running on battery reserves most of the time.

Key questions before anyone replicates this:

• What's your battery capacity vs average daily consumption?
• Are you running a Victron MPPT or budget controller? The difference in harvest efficiency on marginal days is significant
• Any provision for backup charging — generator or shore power fallback?

The economics look very different when you factor in those three dark months. My Fogstar lithium cells handle the depth-of-discharge cycling fine, but undersized systems get hammered.

Done something similar with my static last year. Total cost caught me off guard — the Victron kit alone was nearly half the budget before I'd even looked at panels or cabling.

Few things I'd add from my experience:

• Don't underestimate cable runs if your panels are roof-mounted with a long drop to the inverter
• Fogstar cells if you're building your own battery bank — saved me a fair bit vs buying pre-built
• Site restrictions can be a pain; worth checking with management before you commit to any roof mounting

Biggest surprise for me was how little I actually needed once I stopped running things out of habit. Static caravans are quite efficient when you're honest about actual usage.

Keen to see your full breakdown @SprinterConvert — especially what you're pulling on cloudy days in winter up in North Wales.