Solar panel charger
Looking at buying a little solar panel to keep the battery on my M/H topped up , looking at a 4.5w on E-bay , would that be big enough, I cant get mains to it ,so it has to be solar
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To be honest no. Get one about 20 to 30 watt and a separate controller.
You have to realise that the stated current is in direct bright sunlight. If you assume that you will only get this for a few hours a day in the uk in winter and that you will also have losses in the cable then a 4.5w will probably only average an amp hour per day at best into the battery. To keep a battery healthy you need to be able to cycle it, a current this low is just not enough to keep it healthy.
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I presume you mean the m/h engine battery. I have just had mine go flat, should have checked it sooner. I think I left it for around 4 weeks and the alarm and probably the radio back-up supply has drained the battery.
I friend has recommended up to 50W for a solar panel to keep it topped up. He tried a 4.5W version and said it was rubbish. The above can take up to 2 amps continuously, as I found out on an old Chrysler car I had, and that is 24W so allowing for losses you need half as much again up to twice that, so I am going to look for a solar panel of around 40-50W capability.
The other option would be to tap into the solar panel that supplies the leisure battery, mine has a capacity of 10 amps so it should be able to supply both batteries, plus there are terminals for two batteries on the controller so I could wire from there to the engine battery -through an appropriate fuse and switch.
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Well I connected the second output of the solar panel charger to the vehicle battery and it has been OK throughout the autumn - until now!
I have left the MH in storage for the last 4 weeks and the vehicle battery is flat again. The leisure battery is fully charged so there must be some sort of problem with the vehicle battery. I'll have a go at jump starting it tomorrow, if that doesn't work I might try to remove it and take it home to charge it, although being under the passenger seat it won't be easy to remove.
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There's very little output from solar panels at this time of the year unless it is very bright sun. Regulators are usually biased to provide more to the hab rather than the cab battery. Mine is 80/20% split. As I've posted elsewhere, probably just enough to keep the alarm going. Open and close your central locking a few times plus the courtesy lights and you'll take out more than you put back.
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it's ok connecting the second supply to the vehicle battery but you have to tell the controller that you have done this as on my controller you press a button so you can split the output 50/50 if not I think it's something like 90/10.
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My solar panel charger defaults to 50/50 so I altered it to 80/20 where the 80% is to the vehicle battery.
Still doesn't help much, vehicle battery flat again a week after charging by running engine.
I think I will have to drive it home and connect a mains charger for a few days.
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