Solar Battery Chargers

[lawman]

I am looking for opinions. I keep my a boat on a covered lift. There is no electric at the dock. Was looking to buy a 15 amp Brunton solar charger to charge the lift battery and the two trolling batts. Any comments, warnings, problems????

Thanks for any help.

[sparcebag]

Law I almost replied without looking up Brunton Solar chargers.It was 15 amps WOW thats gonna cost.Are you sure its amps not watts.on Bruntons site a 26 watt pannel is $449.00.15 Amps is = to 1800 watts. 15 watts is a small light bulb 15 watts is = to 1.25 amps.watts Divided by voltage = amps so amps x volts = watts.Trickle charge you will yet need a controler to shut down charge to batt.so you dont over charge.and for 3 batts. they'd recieve next to nothing unless you had a unit for each.Also are they rated by 120 volts or 12 volts? 12V x 15A = 180 Watts---15A x 120V = 1800 watts. Now I'm confused

[Scott K]

I think solar is the name brand, not a style . Maybe. As stated a true solar charger wouldnt be cost effective, it would be better to just buy a few spare batteries.

[lawman]

OOps, I'm an (Contact Us Please)....its 15 watts. How many amps is that? Now I'm confused.

[Whoaru99]

'Bout 1 amp, maybe just a skosh more.

[sparcebag]

Hey Wyat; its watts divided by volts = amps or 15W ~ 12V = 1.25 amps. To reverse and check,its amps x volts so 1.25A x 12V =15. They would have to sit a long time with sunny skies and you'd yet need cut off to be safe

[fivebucks]

Lawman,

I am in the exact same postion as you are in. I bought one (not sure if same brand but same output) and also ordered a solar controller to prevent overcharging - a must have. I started using it later last summer and it seemed to work fine. I started this year with new deep cell batteries and so far it is keeping my batteries charged. I have at least a week or so in between using the boat and I think you would need that. If you used the motor hard, these solar setups will take several days or more to recharge your batteries. The jury is still out on my setup but so far so good. I do not know if the battery life will be shortened since it takes longer to bring back up but we'll see.

[sparcebag]

Five I've read the slower the charge the better for the batt.It also will get a more complete and longer lasting charge.

[eurolarva]

I have read conflicting reports about charging deep cell batteries. If you run them hard and run them down you want to put a high amp charge on them as soon as possible. The longer a battery stays near discharge the faster the cells degrade. A solar charger probably wont put out more the a quarter amp at best and could take a whole week to get a battery back up to nominal voltage. The solar charger might be better for a cranking battery because a lot of times with a good motor it will fire on the first crank and not much drain is done on the battery.

[fivebucks]

The jury is still out on my setup. I go back to the lake in a week so that will give it about 12 days on the charger. Is there a way to tell with a multimeter tool how close the batteries are to full charge?

[nytelyter]

for a dock set up i would highly recomend a small wind generater they will start chargeing with as little as 7mph but like i have posted before on the solar subject. you get what you pay for. i have noticed that northern has some 15 watt panels for as little as $79 i have almost $600 tied up in my 3 15 watt panels and use a controller. for the fishhouse and have no problems keeping one deep cycle battery charged. and i do fish every night. ... paul