Solar Trickle Charge
I keep my caravan in storage over winter, November to March. This means that I have to re charge my leisure battery a few times during this time. I have been researching getting a solar panel to keep the battery topped up over this time. I do not intend using it during the touring season as I always use an electric hook up site or CL. Can somebody, with experience of these devices, recommend a suitable kit? Is it possible to place the solar panel inside the front window, South facing, will it charge using sunlight/daylight through the window? I did see one in the past that simply plugged into the caravan 12v socket (car cigarette lighter type) so avoided having to get crocodile leads into battery storage box, but have not been able to locate one recently. All advice gratefully received!
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We have used a charger like this in the past. About 300mm long by 80mm wide. Sits in the front window and a blue flashing LED shows when it is charging. Can be held up by a couple of suckers, but ours were not reliable stuck inside a caravan plastic window. Still have it after lots of years and it is still working. The charge delivered is low, a trickle charge, and it can't over charge a normal caravan battery, so safe to leave connected.
Look in amazon for ASIN B08V5RXLBK. This is the currently on sale version of ours.
Remember when plugging into a cigarette lighter socket, your built in mains charger/control unit may not connect your socket to the battery unless it is in the on position. Connecting to the battery directly with clips may be a best universal solution if you can hack it from the inside.
Otherwise, how about removing the battery for the winter ? Charge it at home, and it will be protected from possible low temperatures that batteries are not keen on. Your caravan will also be one level safer from bad happenings if the battery went rogue in storage.
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Thanks for your help, I have looked at your suggestion on Amazon. It looks like what I am looking for, on reflection I probably cannot use the cigarette lighter type socket as I would need to leave the master switch on and that drains the battery more rapidly so may have negative affect!
I cannot remove the battery as that would affect the alarm/tracker and nullify my insurance0 -
A bit of lateral thinking.....perhaps get a second battery, keep it charged and then take that to the storage place and swap it with the other one.
bring this home and charge it and swap it next time you visit.
you'll get to know how long you can leave things between visits.
simple lead acid battery pretty cheap compared to a decent SP.
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Just take a couple of leads from the terminals to a suitably mounted plug somewhere convenient inside the van. You can then just plug in the panel when required.
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I have a similar question being new to caravanning. My unit is in storage with the tracker working. The battery was draining slowly so I bought a 20w, 12v solar panel which has a controller connected to stop over charging and to keep a trickle charge working. I am finding that the panel is providing a trickle charge but it seems the battery is still having more taken from it. Should this 20w panel be sufficient? Or do I need to wire in a further 20w panel to double the trickle charge. Any advice gratefully accepted.
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Our van has a 100w panel mounted on the roof, and a tracker. Van not being used over the winter. We will take it for a run a couple of times over the winter, but even so at some point we will need to plug into the mains to keep batteries charged. The problem is there is very little solar at this time of the year.
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