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Solar panel trickle charger

Hi group,

Have any of you got hands-on experience with solar panel trickle chargers? My '98 Disco 300TDi is still oozing power, somewhere. Not much, but still enough to keep my one year old Banner Running Bull

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] from running - after I leave the car for days(I guess 9 or 10) in freezing or near-freezing weather conditions. I tested alle the fuses last year, and there seems to be a problem with satellite fuse box 2, number 6 (interior lights, radio...). In- depth research foundered on my total lack of understanding of all things electric (and me not being able to get the f... clock out). Instead of ripping the insides out, I thought, why not compensate for the loss of power.

Any thoughts?

Regards, Richard

Reply to
Richard
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Yes, I have one and it works fine on V8, but search this group, you will find lots of posts about this.

Andrew

Reply to
Andrew T.

Thanks Andrew, could have thought of that myself, searching the archive I mean. Sorry 'bout that. It seems these solar panel thingies do the trick(le).

Richard

Reply to
Richard

On or around Tue, 9 Dec 2008 02:36:07 -0800 (PST), Richard enlightened us thusly:

small ones trickle VERY slowly, especially in winter. You might want to assess how much current is leaking. I got a fairly cheap one from maplin, and It does about next-to-bugger-all except in direct sunlight, and only a few mA even then, in Autumn.

The minibus does this, too, and it's not practical to trace where the leak is in anything less than about 3 days' work and risk buggering the internal trim, as the interior light circuit (suspected fault) is quite wide-ranging.

My solution was to add another battery on a FAT relay, when the ignition's off the 2nd battery is disconnected, when it's on both are connected. Instant auto-jump-start...

And yes, I know, both batteries are unlikely to simultaneously be 100% charged on a circuit like that, thanks, guys. They will however charge plenty enough. Alternator charging circuits aren't generally that sensitive anyway. It's only likely to give problems if one battery becomes significantly shagged.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Thanks, Austin. I read somewhere that solar panels, the big ones you put on your roof, in two to three months time loose a third to half of their capacity, just by exposing them to (sun)light. Utrecht university did some research into the matter when the Dutch government made solar panels (partly) tax-deductable. Anyway, if the solar panel I had in mind

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] looses half of itscapacity, I'm left with 60 mA, which isn't much, probably, 0,06 Acompared to the battery's 70 Ah, but car electrics is not my forte, tosay the least.

I also do not want to rip up the interior, so I'm left with the second battery option, a ground switch (you call it that? battery disconnect switch?), which seems a bit radical, with the Webasto not working than either, placing a switch in the affected circuit or, nevertheless, the solar panel.

Richard

Reply to
Richard

On or around Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:37:05 -0800 (PST), Richard enlightened us thusly:

Or of course finding the problem and solving it...

note that the output given on those solar panels is the maximum as well. if it says 120mA that's in full sun and optimally placed.

depends on how much leakage you've got. I reckon they'd be OK to stop the clock etc. draining the battery, much more than that they're not going to keep up anyway.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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