Solar panel starter battery charger

hallix100

Member
Hi,
Is there such as a thing as a solar panel charger do I can charge through the cig lighter or obd port? No access to electric
 
Yep, readily available from Halfords, Amazon etc.

This weeks Auto Express magazine has a mini test of them and the PV Logic 8w and Photonic Universe 10w ones come out top. Worth a peek in the mag at your local newsagent!
 
I have the Ecoworthy 10W.

Facing South, but shaded after pm. Only any good from April-September, after that it gives nothing useful.
 
I have the Ecoworthy 10W.

Facing South, but shaded after pm. Only any good from April-September, after that it gives nothing useful.
It might still make enough to stop the plates in the battery furring up?
 
It might still make enough to stop the plates in the battery furring up?
Doubt it, it won't keep mine above 12v in winter, but I do have a tracker.

If I was buying again I'd go 50w.
 
Fwiw...

My test showed you needed 50w for more. With a solar controller.

I had no luck with 5/10/20w panels... And the direct plug in ones are deffo not good. (No controller)
 
Second the AMT-12 if you already have solar fitted on the leisure side.

For direct maintenance I believe 50mA is the threshold for a fault code for the van's ECUs drawing too much current when fully asleep, so using that as a worst case that's potentially 1.2Ah (24 x 0.05) of capacity from the battery over a day.

In watt hours that's 1.2 x 12 so near enough 15wh

So your solar panel needs to be able to replace that at the same rate. As a rough assumption assume you get a good rate for a quarter of the day (6 hours charging, 18 not charging) then you need 15 x 4 = 60w

So the 10/20w panels are likely to fall short.

For reference a normal 5mm LED will generally run at about 20mA - so the load use in the calculation is about 3 LEDs - not that much.
 
Second the AMT-12 if you already have solar fitted on the leisure side.

For direct maintenance I believe 50mA is the threshold for a fault code for the van's ECUs drawing too much current when fully asleep, so using that as a worst case that's potentially 1.2Ah (24 x 0.05) of capacity from the battery over a day.

In watt hours that's 1.2 x 12 so near enough 15wh

So your solar panel needs to be able to replace that at the same rate. As a rough assumption assume you get a good rate for a quarter of the day (6 hours charging, 18 not charging) then you need 15 x 4 = 60w

So the 10/20w panels are likely to fall short.

For reference a normal 5mm LED will generally run at about 20mA - so the load use in the calculation is about 3 LEDs - not that much.
Thank you
 
Back
Top