Cabin : Club Location : Pevensey Bay Posts : 153 Join date : 2012-03-11
Subject: Solar battery charger Thu Nov 01, 2012 10:55 am
Hi I've just found a solar battery maintainer on a 'green' website. This is the description
'DZ Energy's 170mA solar battery charger is a 2.6W solar powered car battery maintainer that will trickle charge a 12V car battery, keeping it topped up. It's weatherproof, and ideal for cars, small boats, tractors and other vehicles'
Any idea if its a good gadget? - just thinking about those campsites & festivals that don't have hook up
I know the chances of enough sunshine could make it useless but .......
Subject: Re: Solar battery charger Thu Nov 01, 2012 12:57 pm
Our understanding of such items is that it is very much a 'trickle charge' offering no real 'charging' capacity. Just make sure your leisure battery is fully charged and with careful use it should last at least 2 or 3 days (lights etc.) This has certainly been the case in our experience, but be careful about fridge use after a day! We only really use the fridge when we have a hook up. Hope this helps.
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Subject: Re: Solar battery charger Thu Nov 01, 2012 1:33 pm
Save your money. They are only any good to stop a battery that's not being used from going totally flat.
With an output of 170mA, assuming 100% efficiency (which they're not ) it's going to take you about 6.5 hrs of full sunshine to charge a leisure battery of 110Ah 1% . (Think the maths is something like 1.1/.17). Not a lot of good
They are rubbish for charging batteries and have no where near enough power. You will need a cell the size of the roof to do any good. They are only good to keep a small charge in the battery to stop it draining completely.