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On 16 Dec 2005 at 9:11, Toby Erkson wrote: > Anyone using a solar panel to maintain a battery? Or to even charge a > battery? This is a route I would really like to take as I have two small > batteries (jet ski and motorcycle) and sometimes a car battery that need a > maintenance charge on them during the off-season. > > What should I look for? Wattage/amperage minimum/maximum? Diode to insure > polarity? Etc. This sounds like a really good idea for a vehicle that gets stored outside. You really don't need much current at all, and the voltage just has to be able to get up to about 14V. I don't think a diode would be any help, because the silicon cells are already diodes. You DO have to be careful not to hook them up backwards, however. For indoor storage, I once bought some little "wall wart" transformers which were made to work like this. They put out a very limited amount of current, but this was more than enough to charge a battery. Mine eventually burned up, which may explain why they were so cheap at JC Whitney. These were made to plug into the cigarette lighter, but you have to understand that on lots of cars the lighter is disconnected when you turn the key off. I had to change this on the car I was using this on at the time. One of the best ideas I heard over the years was from someone who just hooked up a standard charger, set to low, to his car. He then plugged the charger into a lamp timer, which he set to turn the charger on for 1 hour a day. This kept his battery topped off for months without ever overcharging it. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~