solar charger effectiveness
Does anyone know offhand how effective this thing would be? Say, one 12 volt battery. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/nature-power-solar-battery-charger-kit-18-watt/56006 I have two 1...
Forum Discussion
Progressive Dynamics describes the Battery Science rules for charging deep cycle batteries pretty good in this statement they include in most of their converter/charger manuals.
"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.
14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.
13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.
13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."
This becomes a more difficult task using SOLAR PANELs as a typical 120WATT PANEL will only produce around 5-6AMPS of usable DC CURRENT when in full HIGH SUN. This usually only lasts around 5-6 hours in a ONE SUN Day. It takes a good 15-18AMP DC current for each battery being re-charged to start out the charging process listed above in the Progressive Dynamics statement.
This is why a small 18WATT Device would take forever and maybe a few more days to re-charge a deep cycle battery from 50% SOC to even 90% SOC. It would however help maintain a battery that was already charged to 100% State of charge that you might have in storage...
Just my thoughts
Roy Ken
"Progressive Dynamics ran this test on the amount of time it took a PD9155 (55-amp) converter/charger set to three different output voltages to recharge a 125 AH (Amp Hour) battery after it was fully discharged to 10.5-volts.
14.4-VOLTS (Boost Mode) – Returned the battery to 90% of full charge in approximately 3-hours. The battery reached full charge in approximately 11 hours.
13.6-VOLTS (Normal Mode) – Required 40-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 78-hours to reach full charge.
13.2-VOLTS (Storage Mode) – Required 60-hours to return the battery to 90% of full charge and 100-hours to reach full charge."
This becomes a more difficult task using SOLAR PANELs as a typical 120WATT PANEL will only produce around 5-6AMPS of usable DC CURRENT when in full HIGH SUN. This usually only lasts around 5-6 hours in a ONE SUN Day. It takes a good 15-18AMP DC current for each battery being re-charged to start out the charging process listed above in the Progressive Dynamics statement.
This is why a small 18WATT Device would take forever and maybe a few more days to re-charge a deep cycle battery from 50% SOC to even 90% SOC. It would however help maintain a battery that was already charged to 100% State of charge that you might have in storage...
Just my thoughts
Roy Ken
