Which solar panel for my barn

[Jofang]

My tractor and mower are parked in my barn quite away from my house and there is no electricity to the barn. When we leave home and head for warmer climates in Spain each winter I have to remove the batteries from each vehicle, as the tractor & mower are too big to fit into the garage. I put the batteries in my garage with a battery tender on each one. I now have six tenders going (3 bikes + wife's car) and the garage looks like a light show with all the lights flashing on the tenders, so I'm considering installing one or two solar panels at the barn to keep the tractor & mower batteries topped up during this time. My barn is in the woods but all the foliage falls in winter so some sunshine does get through, but not a lot. Any ideas for the correct panels & associated equipment that can operate in winter under reduced sunshine would be most welcome. Has anyone else done this?

 

[dodge man]

I’d think for just a maintainer just about any size would work. I don’t know if Amazon is available in France but Amazon has a lot of them, $40 buys a good one. It looks like 15x5x3 inches is a rough size.

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

Mount vertically on a wall under the eaves on the side that will have the most light during midday. (This way you avoid things falling on the panels aside from dust, however if you get snow and they are on the windy side, drifts may be an issue.)

Cheapest is probably to have one panel and one MPPT controller per battery. Otherwise you will need a bank of deep cell or rv batteries and use a charge controller off of that.

This is all providing it will not get cold enough to freeze the batteries.

The reason for the multi-point panel controller is that they are more efficient transfering energy, especially in marginal light conditions. If you are really handy you could rig up your eaves (on a metal roof only) to wash the panels when it rains as well.

I would suggest avoid daisychaining the batteries you want to maintain. If one develops issues while you are gone, the others have a high chance of being damaged because of it. (The bank behind a charge controller is an exception, any decent charge controller should be able to mitigate a bad cell in its bank)

I would suggest the other method for you, but the EU gas shortage sort of makes using a micro-generator possibly problematic. Remote mining and oil pumping stations use them to maintain their equipment and communications while nobody is around.

 

[5030]

This is all providing it will not get cold enough to freeze the batteries.

Interesting comment. A full charged or even a half charged flooded cell battery will not freeze until well below zero (f).

 

[CausticUrbanCoast]

Interesting comment. A full charged or even a half charged flooded cell battery will not freeze until well below zero (f).

Did say they go to Spain where it is warmer. Greenland, Norway and Siberia get pretty cold.

 

[duffer]

Perhaps a simpler method would be to run an elec extension cord out to the barn. If no one is home, nobody will run over it. If you have to hook 2-3 together you can easily purchase a weather proof junction box.

Seems it would be a lot easier, cheaper, and just as effective.

 

[5030]

Dude is in France, not Siberia...

 

[5030]

Tenders typically draw about 1/4 amp.

 

[Williy]

Harbor Freight has these maintainers: 1.5 Watt Solar Battery Charger
works great saves me from buying a battery every
2 years get 4 years use

Don't know if this will help! Harbor Freight Tools Reviews

willy

 

[Deere Dude]

Tenders are fine, but I found just disconnecting the batteries and leave them alone worked for me. When I came back from Florida to Wisconsin after 4-5 months everything started right up. It maybe didn't crank like a new car, but it only needed to start.