Charging batteries

P

Phill Peck

I have a solar charger kit for use on boats etc.

I wanted to use it in my garage which is in a block that has no power.

My plan was to pick up a car battery connect up the solar kit and use it to power led lights for the garage.

My question is, is it safe to leave the solar charger connected to the battery all the time?
Or should I connect it up to charge when it gets low?

I think a descent car battery should run led lights for quite a while. I've got led lights in the back of my van and my mechanic told me it would be fine to leave the doors open all day they wouldn't run the battery down. Seems to be correct so far
 
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As the wattage provided is somewhat small, it's safe to leave them connected....but the kit should have a blocking diode to prevent the battery discharging through the cell.
Most have status lights to show when they are generating.
John :)
 
The kit has this controller

View media item 95355
Hopefully that would take take of everything

I think the lights connection of this box is just to run lights directly from the solar. Which I don't really need as it will be dark when I want the lights on it will be dark
 
OOI, what's the output of your solar device? Was it expensive?
 
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you mean Maplins?

10W on a "12v" battery would be about 0.7Amps, I think. Somebody will know if that is enough for a float charge.

I suppose with modern LED lamps it would get you through an evening, but quite a small battery would do.
 
Yea maplins bloody auto correct.

I probably will only want to use the lights for 1-2 hours max per night and possibly not even every night. Which is where my original question of leaving it plugged in came from

They have more powerful units as well

The one I've got doesn't seem to be there anymore.

If the 10w isn't enough by the looks of things I can buy another 10/20w panel from eBay and add it in
 
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