Solar trickle charger
Submitted by crabking on Fri, 2015-10-16 17:46
Hi all you knowlegable fishwreckers out there - I want to put a solar panel and trickle charge my battery - sick of waiting for the weather gods and the work gods and the kids sport gods to all align onre day - go to put the boat in the water - only to be confronted by a flat battery - what I am trying to find out is what wattage panel I need to do the job - I only have 1 battery - 730CCA . Started looking at panels - everything from .5W to 12W - do I need a regulator? -I am completely lost on electrical stuff - Thanks for the info in advance
Paul N
Posts: 485
Date Joined: 09/11/06
interested myself
have always wondered if its worth it and what is a good size panel . Can they be left charging all the time ?
Rob H
Posts: 5798
Date Joined: 18/01/12
subject has been done here a
subject has been done here a few times already
My opinion
1/ Yes you absolutely need a regulator on a solar panel
2/ Its not at all a good idea to leave your batteries on charge all the time, trickle, solar, smart or whatever
Why?
Because sooner or later a battery fails.
If it is charging all the time, when will be the first time you shut it all off and find the battery is puckeroo?
Hopefully at the ramp, or else when you shut down for an hour or 2 to fish on the anchor/drift.
Give a man a mask, and he'll show you his true face...
The older you get the more you realize that no one has a f++king clue what they're doing.
Everyone's just winging it.
Swompa
Posts: 3885
Date Joined: 14/10/12
Whitworths in West Perth
Whitworths in West Perth have $50 25w panels. They put in a couple of amps.
Get a Solar 30, 20a regulator from eBay. They cost around $40 bucks. Follow instructions and there you go.
alternatively, regulators from Jaycar/autronics cost $60 for a 10a unit and will do the trick for the above panel.
Travisd
Posts: 315
Date Joined: 07/05/11
Do you have 240v power supply
if so project do a 15a smart charger you can buy off eBay for about $170 that'll turn itself off and can be left connected
has a desulphate feature that's saved me three batteries this year so far
Baron Sportsman
Just the depth that Varies
Happy Hooker
Posts: 305
Date Joined: 12/11/08
Hey crabking
Go into photo gallery , then into boat maintenance gallery you will see what I have done mate to give you an idea ( I put up 2 panels one for each battery, used an old fox tell dish and welded up frame , bolted to side of house ) I think I did a post on it somewhere. I hook them up if I am not using boat for a period of time but always test batteries too, I change my battery every 2 years on boat , chuck it in 4wd aux battery.
scubafish
Posts: 962
Date Joined: 15/08/12
TRY THESE GUYS
http://www.batteriesplus.com.au/index.php
http://img.gg/BQ91Sys