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News announcements and other topics => News => Topic started by: Blvir on May 20, 2011, 11:20:00 AM

Title: Charging Sealed Acid battery w/ small solar panel.
Post by: Blvir on May 20, 2011, 11:20:00 AM
I got a 5v Battery needing to be charged. The total DC output of the solar panel is about 3.5v with little amperage.

Got it hooked up to a rectifier.

Good idea? Let me know. I really don't want to blow the roof.
Title: Re: Charging Sealed Acid battery w/ small solar panel.
Post by: the_big_m_in_ok on May 20, 2011, 12:47:12 PM
Quote from: Blvir on May 20, 2011, 11:20:00 AM
I got a 5v Battery needing to be charged. The total DC output of the solar panel is about 3.5v with little amperage.

Got it hooked up to a rectifier.

Good idea? Let me know. I really don't want to blow the roof.
When I lived in a vacant lot "on the streets" of Okla. City, OK, I did what what you're trying to do.  I bought auto battery trickle charge panels and the associated hardware and then tried to recharge a small 12V battery with them and use a small Radio Shack inverter with my electric shaver.

I had, at the most, 8 small panels, but I needed 30-40.  That would have been too expensive, and also be visible to police helicopters that wandered overhead occasionally.  (This can sometime be considered a police state, especially in the Bible Belt.)

If you want to use them---and they were designed for that---you'll need a fortune in trickle charge panels for car batteries.  But, they should work.  They're simple too, except for the interconnecting hardware.

--Lee