Solar powered Trickle charger

Ecosse120

Ecosse120

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Muddy Essex
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I have just bought from Maplin a solar panel trickle charger. They have them for £9.99 at the moment. It appears to be waterproof as the instructions suggest leaving them outside. Probably not great for those with big batteries but with just an echo sounder and log it should keep the battery topped up.
 
Is it really designed for lead acid batteries? It looks to me to be intended to charge Nicads etc. in mobile phones. A 12 volt car battery needs a 14 volt supply to charge it, and I am not sure that the little Maplin device will do a real lead acid battery any favours. If it does work, please let us know, at that price we will all want one, and I note that they are now on 28 day delivery.
 
Yes I have two, had them for acouple of months now, one on each of two banks. The batteries are kept topped up and (touch wood) no problems. And contrary to others comments, theyare both laid flat on the cabin and work in sun or cloud.
 
My apologies, I had found a different charger from Maplins, with 3, 6, 9, & 12 volt outputs. I am going out to buy the type you have this afternoon, to use on a car which is being stored in my back garden whilst its owner is at university. Might get one or two for the boat as well.
 
Yes, flat is usually better than inclined, in practice. I'm about to get round to doing the maths to prove it. Shouldn't be hard given a few practical assumptions, the first of which is that the usable convertible energy is the available plane energy multiplied by the cosine of the angle of inclination. Now, if you incline the panel, as the sun moves or the boat swings, the same cos(x) rule applies in both planes. Should be quite easy when I get around to it.
 
I bought one from Maplins about 9 months ago, when they were £19.99, but they look the same from the descriptions. My instructions did not say they were suitable for outdoor use and I seem to recall there was a customer query to that effect somewhere on the site and the reply ws that they were not waterproof. Consequently, I place mine under the main saloon hatch. Tho if Silvertop hasn't found any problems, I might review, subject to fears of theft!
 
Actually it is only 85mA at peak output - so realistically it would be hard put to compensate for the self-discharge of even a small car battery in winter.

I bought the 5W version when that was on special offer but it is very difficult to know if it is doing any good.
 
I have the 20W version which definitely does keep my 130A batteries up to 13.5V+ over winter.

I have one per battery, laid flat on the cockpit seats so they don't get any direct light in the depth of winter, and they are a bit filthy with crap and leaves between visits.

They do the same job in the summer, with much greater effect
 
Pointing due South and angled according to your degrees of latitude is about right for a permanent installation.

If you wish you could modify the angle for the month or even day of the year.

If you are on a swinging mooring flat will give you limited efficiency all of the time (excepting shadows and dirt). Question is, is that better or worse than having maximum efficiency some of the time, and varying degrees of efficiency most of the time?
 
I think the solar panel we use on our E Boat is 5w, it sits in the cockpit when the boat is on the mooring and has kept the battery topped up for the last two seasons.
We run log, echo sounder, VHF, occasional CD and an electric keel winch (tarty eh??) off it.
 
Hey - Could I run a baby compressor fridge box with two of these?

(52ah batteries, engine is pull cord start and puts out 2amps at cruising speed when it is running which isn't often)
 
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