Solar Battery chargers

[Challenge]

Does anyone use them? My boat sits on a mooring and I was thinking it might be a good idea to use one of these:

http://helios.pulsetech.net/cgi/hsrun.e ... nePicItno=


Thanks in advance for any feedback or other brands

Cheers

Rick

[welder]

I have been using a little 1.8watt panel that I got at Northern Tool on sale for 16.99 . I siliconed all I could on it to make it weather proof [ according to the instructions ] and they have been working great .

The one I bought , you just hook up with the clamps or use the 12V adapter plug and walk away . Keep in mind 1.8 Watts is a Batt. MAINTAINER , not a charger .

[pjay9]

There are some very good threads with loads of info that you can snoop over at RV.Net. Here's a link.
http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fusea ... D/sr/1.cfm

There is soooo much info there about battery selection and controllers and whatever...good luck! This is all in the Truck Camper (TC) section alone as that is what i deal with. Capt PJ

[IronwoodIsland]

For boats in the water all winter (away from shore power) a solar panel is a good idea, especially if there is a bilge pump or other load. Lead acid batteries also self discharge at about 10-15% per month (ie flat in 6 months)

Unless you have loads of deck space you want a "real" solar panel, i.e. a crystal wafer type with high efficiency and around 10 to 20 watts. Avoid the little dash battery maintainers. Anything under 10 watts likely does not need a controller if you have a reasonably large battery and aren't located in the sun belt. On the other hand, you can get a nice little Morning Star controller very cheap ($35). A larger panel also allows you to use a pulser to prevent sulphidization of your battery plates as these pulsers represent a slight load.

I also have my boat moored on the water in the winter, I found a nice quality 20 watt crystal wafer panel for $100 which has enough power to run a small fan in the summer (great for a cabin alloy hull as Aluminum can soak up the heat) and keep the battery charged in the winter. There's nothing worse than that clicking noise of a too tired battery when there is a whole party of women, kids and dogs waiting for a pickup on the other side of the sound.

[3f8]

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Rectangle on the roof is a 30 watt panel. This was from batterystuff.com. It uses a pulse charge controller. The panel has a stainless steel pack plane. It has worked well so far.