Solar Powered Battery Chargers

[true?no]

OK so heading to Albert town for new years down in Wanaka and thought i'd have a look at solar powered chargers i've heard a wee bit about, i saw 1 on tardme that sits on the dash and plugs in to the ciggy lighter. Now in my mind i imagined it plugging straight onto the battery to keep some charge in it, enough to turn it over. I don't know why but the idea of putting power back into some where it comes out from doesn't sound right?? And! its cheeaaappppp atm which also raises my eyebrows lol

So any resident experts, please share your knowledge :)

[barryogen]

cheap ones are not worth it, not enough to keep them from going flat.
better ones cost too much to recoup cost easily.

[matt dunn]

Depends on what you want to run.


Work out the current of the panel,

and the current drian of what you want to run,

i.e. to run a car stereo at a reasonable level with no subs or amps,
your looking at about $900,

for $50 you get a 5w panel that takes 3 weeks to charge a battery if at all.

[Guss]

What about doing nothing but maintaining a charge on the battery, with no accesories running at all? i.e no alarm no stereo backup nothing.
I've got a spare car that sits around and it would be driven more if the battery wasn't always flat.
Battery is now dead as a door knob and does not hold a charge hence replacement is in order, I'd like to have the replacement last a little longer than the first one.
would a 5w panel be ok ?

[Bling]

Drive it more or disconnect the battery if you really don't want to drive it.

If you are serious though about getting a panel, follow Matts instructions on how to work out the size of panel needed.

[johndoe1025]

a fully charged batery will generally hold its charge for ages if you diconnect it from the car

[matt dunn]

a fully charged batery will generally hold its charge for ages if you diconnect it from the car

And if you dont some cars wont last 2 weeks, esp some Toyota's.

A 5W panel if positioned right at a good angle to the sun,will stop it from going flat as long as there is no more then the normal draw off.

[johndoe1025]

you can get battery stabilisers, we sell them we hard wire them into the car and thers a little plug u pul out of int he bumper, plugs onto a little trickle charger, a lotta people have them on car if they leave the country a lot etc, the charger is peak sensing and everything, and trickles at 900mah