Trickle Chargers

teamzr1

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
plastic orange said:
Mr solar charger arrived today and seems a reasonable piece of kit. It's connected now, so will hopefully do it's job. The sun is shining brightly today up here.

Pete
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Pete
Can you put a volt meter across the battery posts and see what the voltage difference is with this device connected and then disconnected ?
 
P

plastic orange

CCCUK Member
plastic orange said:
Yes, I'll do that tomorrow and let you know.

Pete
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It seems to be adding .2 volt at present, but battery was only reading 11.8 volts without and 12 volts with despite the solar charger being on since yesterday afternoon. It's a new battery on the car I believe, but voltage seems pretty low, so i've put it on my battery charger to give it a boost and i'll see what it's like later on today. Upshot is that the solar charger is doing something, but whether it's enough to maintain charge remains to be seen. I may have to investigate what's draining it, but I'd guess the alarm system which is the Toad system fitted to cars imported into the UK. I've only ever had bad experiences with aftermarket alarm systems, so I may disconnect it if possible.

Pete
 
Chuffer

Chuffer

CCCUK regional rep
plastic orange said:
It seems to be adding .2 volt at present, but battery was only reading 11.8 volts without and 12 volts with despite the solar charger being on since yesterday afternoon. It's a new battery on the car I believe, but voltage seems pretty low, so i've put it on my battery charger to give it a boost and i'll see what it's like later on today. Upshot is that the solar charger is doing something, but whether it's enough to maintain charge remains to be seen. I may have to investigate what's draining it, but I'd guess the alarm system which is the Toad system fitted to cars imported into the UK. I've only ever had bad experiences with aftermarket alarm systems, so I may disconnect it if possible.

Pete
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Maybe the sun`s not hot enough . :unsure: :ROFLMAO:
 
Chuffer

Chuffer

CCCUK regional rep
CaptainK said:
Possibly not the right kind of sun? Could be incompatible with our sun, as might have been designed to work with different suns in mind.
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Maybe the line of latitude is the problem up there in Scotland ? The sun is at a lower angle and maybe bounces off the solar panel instead of being absorbed by it . :LOL:
 
P

plastic orange

CCCUK Member
Chuffer said:
According to the weather forecast Scotland is in for gale force winds . Maybe you should have bought a wind generater not a solar one . :ROFLMAO:
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I don't think we'll experience anything like the winds we had last month - was the worst storm since 1968. Problem with a wind generator is that the rotors could take your eye out if you're not careful.

Pete
 
teamzr1

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
As a compare

Just checked out my 1993 Caddy parked outside
Weather nights in 20s F deg, days about 40 F deg
Car has not been driven for over 1 week and no tender was hooked up

Measured at battery posts, 12.3 volts
Tender reported battery was 85 % charged
Plugged in battery tender = 15.3 volts, that is 20 percent higher

I'll let tender do it thing for like 30 minutes and measure again what the difference is of battery to the added output of tender
 
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teamzr1

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
plastic orange said:
It seems to be adding .2 volt at present, but battery was only reading 11.8 volts without and 12 volts with despite the solar charger being on since yesterday afternoon. It's a new battery on the car I believe, but voltage seems pretty low, so i've put it on my battery charger to give it a boost and i'll see what it's like later on today. Upshot is that the solar charger is doing something, but whether it's enough to maintain charge remains to be seen. I may have to investigate what's draining it, but I'd guess the alarm system which is the Toad system fitted to cars imported into the UK. I've only ever had bad experiences with aftermarket alarm systems, so I may disconnect it if possible.

Pete
Click to expand...

Hard to tell not knowing what the margin of error is with the volt meter, you're using
But 0.2 volts would not even overcome what cold weather does do battery drain on voltage drop

Winter angle of sun and size of cell I assume will limit its voltage output
 
P

plastic orange

CCCUK Member
The batteries on my 3 garaged cars are all over 12 volts and haven't been charged for a while. I was surprised voltage was so low as car was driven a couple of days ago. It is sitting at 12.4 just now, so will see what it's like tomorrow. When I had my lexus it got the same use as the vette and I had to charge that too and battery never went below 12v, but wouldn't start under about 12.1v causing me to replace the battery. This battery holds it's charge fine now it's not connected to a car that has a drain from alarm etc. I may just have to charge the vette more often with my 4 amp charger until it's back to more frequent use.

Pete
 
teamzr1

teamzr1

Supporting vendor
Update:
After like 30 minutes of tender being on it, then saying battery was 100% fully charged,
output I measured at battery post's 12.7 volts after the tender was taken off.

With length and small size of circuit wires there would be voltage drops and controllers so not work well at lower voltages
so again good reason to keep vehicle battery on a tender, esp in extremes of weather temps
 
Vetman

Vetman

CCCUK Member
Solar chargers come in different sizes. My one is about A4 size and is good in summer but not so good in winter. My car has 20w/50 oil so battery needs a bit of help from a plug in charger this time of year.
 
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