Solar Battery Maintainer Selection ??
I have a vehicle that sits unused… outside… in the high desert in Nevada… in all weather conditions... for 350 days every year. Then I use it for daily two weeks and it goes back to the outdoor storag...
Forum Discussion
10 - 15 watts is more likely needed to keep the battery full, and overcome all the other discharges of the system.
I have a hand held isolation meter. It measures the sun watts per square meter for solar system sizing. I was using it one day, and measuring the sun radiation while driving from Boluvard CA to San Diego CA. This dropped me from 3,700' elevation to near sea level in about 1 hour. I was getting 1080 W/square meter at 3,700' and 1040 midway to home. By the time I was in San Diego, it dropped to about 1020 W/Sq M. Inside the windshied of my work van, the reading was only 450 - 870, depending on the area I held the meter. It is tinted towards the top, and that was much less.
So figure that a 15W panel will only put out about 10W if inside the windshield. This will collect about 50 watts per day in sunny conditions, and only about 20-30W in cloudy conditions. This works out to about 2-4 AH daily, or about what the self discharge on a larger AMG battery would be. IT barely takes into account what the radio can draw, or security system, or thing that listens for the remote door unlocker.
Good luck,
Fred.
I have a hand held isolation meter. It measures the sun watts per square meter for solar system sizing. I was using it one day, and measuring the sun radiation while driving from Boluvard CA to San Diego CA. This dropped me from 3,700' elevation to near sea level in about 1 hour. I was getting 1080 W/square meter at 3,700' and 1040 midway to home. By the time I was in San Diego, it dropped to about 1020 W/Sq M. Inside the windshied of my work van, the reading was only 450 - 870, depending on the area I held the meter. It is tinted towards the top, and that was much less.
So figure that a 15W panel will only put out about 10W if inside the windshield. This will collect about 50 watts per day in sunny conditions, and only about 20-30W in cloudy conditions. This works out to about 2-4 AH daily, or about what the self discharge on a larger AMG battery would be. IT barely takes into account what the radio can draw, or security system, or thing that listens for the remote door unlocker.
Good luck,
Fred.
