Solar Battery trickle chargers

[Roger Chatterton]

Sadly my bike lock-up has no power or heating ( great for winter repairs)-in the past I have used a cheapo Maplins £10 special offer Solar panel, but this seems to have given up the ghost in all the rain ( it was fixed on the roof).
As the bike is not in daily use in the winter, I need a trickle charge, just to keep battery happy. So I found this site on the 'net, and am waiting for delivery of the "5 watt charging panel -B grade" Costs £37.99 delivered,

https://www.lycoseshop.co.uk/epages...xD_w/?ViewAction=View&ObjectID=2942209&Page=2

Never used this company before, but it looks good value to me, so thought I'd pass it on as there has been interest in these type panels in the past.

 

[vilguy]

Hi there roger, good find. These are indeed handy for when you dont have access to mains power all the time. There is however these as well.

http://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=566677

You can get them cheaper if you look around i just couldnt be bothered.

 

[Fanum]

Hi there roger, good find. These are indeed handy for when you dont have access to mains power all the time. There is however these as well.

http://www.mandp.co.uk/productInfo.aspx?catRef=566677

You can get them cheaper if you look around i just couldnt be bothered.

I had one of those exact panels to keep the battery for my big trailer's hydraulics charged up (it lives on a farm and I have no power access)


It was utterly shyte...very low power output even in good sun, built out of the cheapest materials you can imagine and very fragile- the really thin glass panel cracked from me just bungeeing it down lightly over a very slightly uneven surface to try and get a better angle to the sun's average position.

Wouldn't bother with another cheapy TBH.....I've not tried the more expensive ones but it has to be worth a punt 'cos this one (I got mine from Maplins) was bollox

 

[Loiq]

could not find the link but I did a job and one of the guys had a modified one of these which seemed to work well to charge his phone, camera etc.

worked alright half way up everest perhaps they do a bigger one to suit your purpose?

http://www.greenandmore.com/juicebag-solar-canvas-tote-bags.html


you can also use a washing machine motor, small wind generator and a car battery sound all abit macgiver but here goes

wind mill attached to washing machine turning the motor against it normal direction in other words backwards this will make the motor generate power like a turbine connected to the car battery with acts as the capacitor from which you either draw with an inverter or use the battery at 12V.

I'm think about having a go building one in my shed

 

[Roger Chatterton]

could not find the link but I did a job and one of the guys had a modified one of these which seemed to work well to charge his phone, camera etc.

worked alright half way up everest perhaps they do a bigger one to suit your purpose?

http://www.greenandmore.com/juicebag-solar-canvas-tote-bags.html


you can also use a washing machine motor, small wind generator and a car battery sound all abit macgiver but here goes

wind mill attached to washing machine turning the motor against it normal direction in other words backwards this will make the motor generate power like a turbine connected to the car battery with acts as the capacitor from which you either draw with an inverter or use the battery at 12V.

I'm think about having a go building one in my shed

But will it still wash my undies for me, that's the question ?
HAve to get an Au Pair...that'd keep me battery charged.
Love to see apic of the finished product -maybe David Cameron will be flogging his old wind generator soon ?

 

[vilguy]

I think the problem with the solar cell chargers is that you need a pretty big one in order to just maintain a charge in a large 12v cell. In particular a trailer cell! (i imagine they would be of a large capacity?)

Maplins had a deal on a few weeks back for very large solar cells (as in around 10 times the size!).. check out there specials.

 

[John Armstrong]

When my bikes were in a garage without power and some distance from the mains I used a car battery and solar charger. The car battery has many times more capacity than the bike battery, and with the solar charger keeping it topped up, I didn't seem to have any problems.

When I took the bike out for the day, I put the ex car battery on charge on the mains. Worked for me