We put our MX% in the garage over the winter under a cosy cover. Rather then keep charging the battery, is it possible to use a solar panel (outside the garage obviously) to keep the battery charged up? Any ideas or recommendations would be very welcome
Thanks
DawneeBee
Do you have power in your garage?
Yes we do have power in the garage. Have you got a suggestion?
Thanks
DawneeBee
If you have power you need a smart charger and leave it connected. The Aldi/Lidl ones will do the job at about the £15 mark or you can go up market and spend a fortune.
This may help ALDI & LIDL Ultimate Speed VS AutoXs Smart Battery Chargers Which is best? - YouTube
1 Like
Or a Ctek charger also will do the job!
2 Likes
No, best forget solar in UK. Too much hassle for not much gain, if any.
That is unless you are desperate and can find something like this BIG panel, (but I still gave it only 3*) AND somewhere safe to put it, AND the essential Smart controller to prevent it boiling the battery on the one or two midsummer days each year we have some useful sunshine!
Compared with a mains Smart charger (Aldi, Ctek, Noco, at al), here in UK with our normal weak sunlight and short days in winter, the small solar panels typically claimed to be useful for topping up car/caravan batteries are very poor value in Ampere-hours per pound.
They also need constant cleaning and very careful aim for best insolation.
Solar panel sums are quite simple.
Look at the claimed maximum output current, and remember this is almost always for equatorial midday with the sun directly overhead.
Then think about applying it in (e.g.) London where midday sun sits somewhere between 28 degrees above the horizon (midwinter) and 74 degrees (midsummer).
(London is about 51 degrees North and the sun moves about 23 degrees either side of the equator.)
In midwinter, when we need charge the most, on bright middays I achieved less than a tenth the claimed output on three different panels.
Also most of them need an additional stop diode to prevent the battery leaking back through them at night.
Then consider charging a battery; it needs both charge current and duration. A perfect but empty 50 Ampere-hour battery needs 1 Amp for 50 hours to recharge it. No battery is perfect, so a little bit more is necessary.
To overcome only the 24/7 dark current drain in a modern car the panel needs to supply about 1 Ampere-hour per day. Charging a flat battery enough to start the engine needs a lot more.
During lockdown none of the three expensive “car charger panels” I tested came close to that in our overcast wet midwinter and pollen-fest spring. They were all 1*, none of them are on sale now.
A mains extension lead to a Smart charger under the bonnet was the only answer in lockdown for our Mazda3 living outside.
I had a solar panel for my battery many years ago and it was a complete waste of space! I reckon it drained the battery rather than charged it!!
1 Like
Can vouch for the Aldi/Lidl ones, used one for quite a few winters now, it’s all you need. No need to spend ££££’s when these £15 ones are up to the job. They are “smart” so will charge it until full then stop until voltage drops a bit then charge it back up to max, rinse and repeat until spring.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.