Solar battery chargers?

[DMF]

My brother in law has a camp in northern VT and his father gave him 4 deep cycle batteries from fork trucks to use to power his lights. He tried it this weekend and it worked great! Now he is looking for a way to charge them and we were wondering if anyone knew of a solar powered trickle charger... Any input?

 

[_RaT_]

There are many to choose from. The price will depend on how many watts you want which translates into more or larger panels. A simple Google search will get you a ton of info. Places like Northern Tool sell various panels for recharging batteries.

 

[Phils]

I've lived "off the grid" since 1977 and have tried many different things over the years.

Don't waste time/effort on the little solar "trickle chargers", those rated for 5W or 15W. One 100w or better panel may keep them charged depending on hours of sun/day and how far they get discharged on the weekends. Those small chargers are ok for one auto battery that doesn't get used but for your situation will be like filling a swimming pool with a squirtgun. It wouldn't even keep up with evaporation.

With a 100 or 120 watt panel you won't need a charge controller. If you go to multiple panels an inexpensive controller would keep the batteries from being overcharged. There are formulas that figure out at what point a controller is needed if you contemplate a bigger array, which it doesn't sound like.

I can steer you to some good solar power forums if you have more questions. I can also tell you the companies I've had the best success with (I have six 170w panels being shipped today as I'm increasing my solar bank due to the skyrocketing price of propane, which powers my generator, which has been getting too much use during this past record season of rain. I need to get electricity from that bank even on rainy/cloudy days).

Phil

 

[CurlyDave]

As others have said, I doubt that a trickle charger is up to the task of charging them.

When you look at the cost of a solar array big enough to keep them charged, you may faint. Two years ago, 200 watts of solar array and a controller for my RV had a cost of ~$1800.

Just as something to consider, the most cost effective solution may be a small generator to charge them, and a solar trickle charger to keep them charged between uses.

Alternately, a small, quiet generator, with no storage batteries, may be a more cost effective solution for intermittent electricity. Yes, I know the battteries were free, but if it costs $1500 to get a big enough charger, and a generator is less than that, they really aren't "free".

There is a big difference between living off the grid where electricity is required 100% of the time, and a camp where the use is very intermittent.

 

[3RRL]

I agree with intermittent use of the generator at camp. We only have solar motion dectector spotlights that light up the path to the outhouse. We use lamps when there. The generators are used mostly for the well and running some tools. However, I'll share something that may be of interest.

We plan to start building our new home this Summer and are also going off grid with a back up generator. Our goal is to invest in the solar system to keep the generator run time down to a very minimum....so it will be a substantial system. With the cost of propane rising, this is a priority in our design. Even so, the cost wil be less than half of what it costs to run Edison to our property!

One thing came up during the selection of general contractors. Itemized for the build period was a cost of $10,000 for a generator to provide electricity during the construction period. Surprising to us but a consideration nevertheless. So we asked if we could save that amount if we provided the electricity and we can. We decided to start the solar system construction first, which will provide electricity to the contractor and save $10,000 there. That was enough to pay for the 20K back-up generator and one solar tracker alone.