Solar Charger ?

[GolfVenture]

Any good recommendations on a solar charger.

I'd like to use it to charge 12 volt RV battery and also 1.5 volt rechargeable C, D, AA, AAA batteries.

 

Or maybe a 110 solar panel to plug in the above chargers.

 

I've never purchased a solar panel yet but I'm sure you all here have.

 

Thank You in advance for your advise and shared experiences.

[RandyR]

I don't have experience with them, but from what I know, they are DC. each solar cell is generally 0.5volts.

 

Put them in series to get higher dc voltage

Put them in parallel to get more power.

 

So you wouldn't want a solar cell system that produced 110 volt ac just to turn around and run a DC charger.

[Flyinfool]

If you actually want to charge an RV battery in a reasonable amount of time, you will need a lot of big panels.

 

I had a 2.5 watt solar panel on my RV that would keep the battery topped up and ready to go at a moments notice. It could recharge the battery if you had a month to wait. I simply placed it on the roof and had a connector to plug it in under the RV out of the weather. The only time it was not on the roof and plugged in was while traveling down the road.

 

If you want to put a significant amount of charge back into the battery in a day you will need a 45 watt or bigger system.

something like this. If this is in full sun and kept pointed right at the sun you will get about 3.5 amps to charge your battery. Even at 3.5 amps it can take a couple of days to charge a depleted RV battery.

[MikeWa]

Check in with Harbor Freight they have some very workable set ups.

 

Mike

[Sylvester]

In my experience the best you will get is trickle charge. If you have AC current, get a battery charger or for maintenance a Yuasa m/c charger, which is what I use for the long term charge/maint.

 

[BlueVenture87]

You'll need a panel/ panels and likely a charge controller. Of the available panels there are two types. The solid color grey or black ones are the low output type while the ones that look like shattered glass are the higher output ones. In full sun these panels will put out a lot of volts, the charge controller regulates this. Additionally solar panels will charge batteries during the day but at night they discharge batteries. The charge controller will also prevent this. If you design a system without a charge controller, look into "blocking diodes" to let the electricity in during the day and keep it there at night. Check online for Northern Arizona Wind and Sun for a place to get the parts to build a nice system. I'm not affiliated with them but have had some good service there when I built my 24V sailboat system.

 

-JK