solar panel trickle charge?

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ant - 06 Dec 2006 22:22 GMT

howdy folks. while back i asked a few questions here and got excellent
advice.

a further question- i am rigging an auxillary battery for my escort, a
deep cell to power my various toys while on long road trips. i would
like to install a solar panel to trickle charge the aux battery during
the long periods of time i am not regularly driving.

the solar panels i see online seem to be rated at 12v. does this mean
that with an additional drop of 1v from a diode (no backflush, please)
that the panel could never charge the battery above 11 volts? that
doesnt sound that useful to me unless the battery is always run down,
particularly with a low amp solar panel..

any ideas?

anthony

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Nate Nagel - 06 Dec 2006 22:46 GMT

> howdy folks. while back i asked a few questions here and got excellent
> advice.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> anthony

VW used to have solar battery chargers that would plug into the cig.
lighter for just the purpose you describe. might want to see if a
friendly dealer wouldn't sell you a couple. They were shipped with all
new VWs as of a couple years ago, but I don't think many of them made it
into the customers' hands (I think they were just intended to keep the
batteries topped up during shipping)

nate

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ant - 07 Dec 2006 14:47 GMT

> VW used to have solar battery chargers that would plug into the cig.
> lighter for just the purpose you describe. might want to see if a
> friendly dealer wouldn't sell you a couple. They were shipped with all
> new VWs as of a couple years ago, but I don't think many of them made it
> into the customers' hands (I think they were just intended to keep the
> batteries topped up during shipping)

thanks for the advice, folks.

i did a bit more research just now and it appears that the panels
actually put out much more than 12 v at their peak, which makes sense.
i guess all the ones i was looking at are rated 12v so they dont scare
consumers away who know they dont have a 17v battery..

anyways, thanks again.

anthony

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Pete C. - 06 Dec 2006 22:55 GMT

> howdy folks. while back i asked a few questions here and got excellent
> advice.
[quoted text clipped - 13 lines]
>
> anthony

The little panels have diodes built in. Bigger panels may have them, and
the bigger panels also require the use of a charge controller.

The little panels will be of absolutely no use in charging an auxiliary
battery for "toys", they are only of use to make up for charge loss due
to loads like engine computers and radio memories.

Try alt.energy.homepower for solar expertise.

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