teamzr1
Supporting vendor
Going on two years of my long term testing of maintaining the battery in a vehicle that is always parked outside
Using the remote battery monitor, have checked at least once a day what the state of the battery is in
Vehicle used only goes through less than two tanks of gas a YEAR, so most of its life is parked and outside where there
is no 120 volts A/C power to plug in a battery tender
So to solve that about 1 year ago I added a small solar panel that suction cups hold it to the outside of windshield
solar panel outputs from 12 to 16 volts depending on amount of sun level
I then remotely monitored battery state daily to find not only how much sun shines but also saw a pattern during the year of that solar output
Clearly solar output of 16 volts D/C would cook a battery long term, so I had to solve that and also understand why there is output differences over the Year
First I added this solar controller, cheap in cost and its purpose it to regulate so that the output of panel is prevented to input more than like 14 volts to the battery
In winter months like at night the battery State of Charge would drop to like 82% and might get to SoC of 92% in daylight
But still in my mind was why solar output changed, and then it hit me and that is Latitude parked vehicle is and sun angle !
Doing research on this I found that as the days, weeks, months of the year the sun angle changes where in winter time sun is weaker the solar output is less and in summer most solar output
So now had to find the latitude I live and then a way to find best overall angle the solar panel should be mounted
or know depending on the month to readjust the panel's angle from windshield
That comes out just for my location of :
My optimal year-round tilt angle: 28.3° from horizontal
My optimal tilt angles by season:
• Spring: 28.3°
• Summer: 13.3°
• Fall: 28.3°
• Winter: 43.3°
My optimal tilt angles by month:
• January: 38.3°
• February: 33.3°
• March: 28.3°
• April: 23.3°
• May: 18.3°
• June: 13.3°
• July: 18.3°
• August: 23.3°
• September: 28.3°
• October: 33.3°
• November: 38.3°
• December: 43.3°
This than allows to assure the proper output of solar panel to assure the input voltage to battery never gets higher than 14 volts
and the angle of solar panel is best case year round for proper voltage output
So I built an adjustable bracket (with stuff lying around) to mount the solar panel and using a level can per month or season changes the panel's angle as above or use the one yearly best angle
Now with bit warmer night temps and proper angle of solar panel, SoC art night is like 94% and 100% during the day
Using the remote battery monitor, have checked at least once a day what the state of the battery is in
Vehicle used only goes through less than two tanks of gas a YEAR, so most of its life is parked and outside where there
is no 120 volts A/C power to plug in a battery tender
So to solve that about 1 year ago I added a small solar panel that suction cups hold it to the outside of windshield
solar panel outputs from 12 to 16 volts depending on amount of sun level
I then remotely monitored battery state daily to find not only how much sun shines but also saw a pattern during the year of that solar output
Clearly solar output of 16 volts D/C would cook a battery long term, so I had to solve that and also understand why there is output differences over the Year
First I added this solar controller, cheap in cost and its purpose it to regulate so that the output of panel is prevented to input more than like 14 volts to the battery
In winter months like at night the battery State of Charge would drop to like 82% and might get to SoC of 92% in daylight
But still in my mind was why solar output changed, and then it hit me and that is Latitude parked vehicle is and sun angle !
Doing research on this I found that as the days, weeks, months of the year the sun angle changes where in winter time sun is weaker the solar output is less and in summer most solar output
So now had to find the latitude I live and then a way to find best overall angle the solar panel should be mounted
or know depending on the month to readjust the panel's angle from windshield
That comes out just for my location of :
My optimal year-round tilt angle: 28.3° from horizontal
My optimal tilt angles by season:
• Spring: 28.3°
• Summer: 13.3°
• Fall: 28.3°
• Winter: 43.3°
My optimal tilt angles by month:
• January: 38.3°
• February: 33.3°
• March: 28.3°
• April: 23.3°
• May: 18.3°
• June: 13.3°
• July: 18.3°
• August: 23.3°
• September: 28.3°
• October: 33.3°
• November: 38.3°
• December: 43.3°
This than allows to assure the proper output of solar panel to assure the input voltage to battery never gets higher than 14 volts
and the angle of solar panel is best case year round for proper voltage output
So I built an adjustable bracket (with stuff lying around) to mount the solar panel and using a level can per month or season changes the panel's angle as above or use the one yearly best angle
Now with bit warmer night temps and proper angle of solar panel, SoC art night is like 94% and 100% during the day