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Post Info TOPIC: Solar battery chargers, do they actually work?


Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Solar battery chargers, do they actually work?


I see Canadian Tire has a 1watt solar panel battery charger on sale this weekend.
70% off for a price of $7.99.

I've been thinking of putting one of these on my Sea-Doo when I leave it at the cottage. I used to bring it back with me and hook it up to a battery maintainer. But I'd like to leave it up there for the season. The area where it sits will get sun from about 8am- 1pm in the summer.

What should I know about these panels? Will the 1 watt be enough?

Cheers, Mark.

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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Nobody use one?

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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


A Poncho Legend!

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Boy, I thought you'd get lots of answers too....

Why not try it? I bet it works. I've done tons of solar homework getting ready to set it up at our cabin this year. That is on a much grander scale of course but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

At 1 watt it will only charge a fraction of an amp I would say but that should work well to maintain a battery.

If you try it I'd be curious to know the results.

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

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Poncho Master!

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My dad uses it on his boat and it works great. He never has a dead battery from sitting at the dock and using all his toys.

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A Poncho Legend!

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I have 2 in packages, from last sale lol    glad to hear they will work..

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I'll buy one tomorrow.
The only problem I can see from going to the website, is that the very smallest ones are not waterproof. They are meant to sit on a dashboard. I plan on just bungeeing it on the flat area of the seat on top of the cover. Maybee I can just seal it up with some silicone. For 10 bucks or so, what's to loose.



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65 Laurentian post, 67 Grande Parisienne 4 door HT. 
 


Poncho Master!

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Mine works good. Can you wire it into the inside of your cottage?

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Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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Turns out the one they show on the Sunforce website isn't the one at Canadian Tire.
This one is the "Power sports" model and claims to be fully waterproof. So it's not the issue first thought.

I grabbed 2 today. For the boat and Sea-Doo.
I'm actually pretty impressed with it, I looks not at all cheap. And with all the wire, plugs etc. it's surely a great deal for 8 bucks! It claims 1watt or 80mA in direct sun.
We'll see.

3396147358_16d717a8db.jpg



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I'm using the power of a bigger panel right now to type this messagebiggrin

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1990 Honda Civic Winter-Rod 
1988 Honda Civic ice racer

                              In Saskatoon.


A Poncho Legend!

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Ed M wrote:

I'm using the power of a bigger panel right now to type this messagebiggrin



Care to elaborate? Are you a solar guru? I'm working on setting up solar at the cabin this summer. I would have taken it out there when I went on the weekend but I kept it at home. I figure if the power goes out here during the flood I will hook it up to run a  couple of lights at night. No need to run a generator just for a few lights.

I have 60 watts here and another 30 will go together with that at the cabin.

 



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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



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I found an 80 watt panel on Kijiji for cheap, so i bought the big battery from Canadian tire and an inveter. I'm still learning, but I know I need more power. Once its warm enough I'll put up my 30 watt panel also. I even made a pedal generator for my lazy winter self, but am too lazy to use it

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1960 Pontiac Laurentian 2 door post
2003 GMC Sierra 4.8 2wd
1990 Honda Civic Winter-Rod 
1988 Honda Civic ice racer

                              In Saskatoon.


A Poncho Legend!

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I'm actually hoping when this flood hits that I will have some days off. If so, I want to get the solar all hooked up and try it out. See how much I can run with 60 watts. I bought two 6 volt deep cycle batteries to run off. I am thinking as long as we are a little bit careful with it, that should easily power what we need at the cabin. Fridge, curling iron (not mine!) and stove are propane, microwave will have to run off the generator so it's mostly lights is all it needs to run.

How long can you run a computer off the battery when you charge it with the 80 watt panel?

Mark, sorry, I've successfully derailed another thread on Canadian Poncho. Should we move this to a new thread?

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



Canadian Poncho Superstar!

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No, no, thats fine Carl.

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Carl Stevenson wrote:
Care to elaborate? Are you a solar guru? I'm working on setting up solar at the cabin this summer. I would have taken it out there when I went on the weekend but I kept it at home. I figure if the power goes out here during the flood I will hook it up to run a  couple of lights at night. No need to run a generator just for a few lights.

Carl,
Remember to use energy saver globes.  In my small office I use 7 watt and in larger rooms from 7-11 watt globes.  Major reduction in consumption.biggrin

 



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Ah yes! I remember it well!!! (With Pictures)

  1. 1965 Malibu 4dr Sedan L6 (Original)
  2. 1975 Chevrolet Kommando 305 (Monaro Clone)
  3. 2000 Peugeot 406 2.0L
  4. 1996 VW Golf Chico


A Poncho Legend!

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Yes, we have them. An amazing amount of light for the little power they consume.

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



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It takes a few hours to drop the battery from 12.8 volts to 12.1 volts with my computer, I should get a Killawatt meter to figure how much power it consumes. 1 full sunny day will charge it up to full again, I think the charge controller should charge until about 13.5 volts, but it stops at 12.8?

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1960 Pontiac Laurentian 2 door post
2003 GMC Sierra 4.8 2wd
1990 Honda Civic Winter-Rod 
1988 Honda Civic ice racer

                              In Saskatoon.


A Poncho Legend!

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If I am right, when I checked last summer at the lake using our 30 watt panel there it cut out at 14.1 or 14.2

That seems to low where your's stops. Fully charged is about 12.7, right?

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars



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I want to get 2 for my boat this summer. I will need larger ones though. To run a small fan in the cabin, and trickle charge the batteries. There is a lot of sunshine hours along the shore of Lake Erie in the summer. We have solar lights in our gazebo that are OK for short term.

-- Edited by eeluddy on Wednesday 1st of April 2009 07:40:12 PM

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i have 4 of those exact solar panels.one for my quad,one for my boat,one for my camper,and keep one in my 3/4 truck all winter(rarely drive it).they all work great.


-- Edited by 86bigred on Sunday 19th of July 2009 12:06:25 AM

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A Poncho Legend!

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Just home from the lake a couple of hours ago and 60 watts of solar in the nice bright sun today was putting about 3 amps into my pair of 6 volt batteries (wired up as 12 volt). Not bad. Kind of cool actually watching the sun charge up the batteries at 3 amps!

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1966 Strato Chief 2 door, 427 4 speed, 45,000 original miles 

1966 Grande Parisienne, 396 1 of 23 factory air cars

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