Solar power battery charger

Has anyone here got any exp with them? How good are they this time of the year?

I need something to keep my battery topped up, but i dont have power in the garage and cant put it in for long periods.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...ce=14&doy=19m2

Thats what I been looking at. It doesnt say if its got stages built in so it dont over charge the battery or anything

Any help appreciated!

[tigersaw]

Peak 1 watt? pretty useless. And its from maplins, so it WILL be useless.

[DarrenSV650S]

Can't see that working but would like to be proved wrong

Originally Posted by tigersaw

Peak 1 watt? pretty useless. And its from maplins, so it WILL be useless.

There are higher power ones as well...

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Has anyone here got any exp with them? How good are they this time of the year?

I need something to keep my battery topped up, but i dont have power in the garage and cant put it in for long periods.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...ce=14&doy=19m2

Thats what I been looking at. It doesnt say if its got stages built in so it dont over charge the battery or anything

Any help appreciated!

Why not just run power into the garage it isn't hard. If you just want a supply for a battery charger, at my last place we just ran a hard wired extention lead into the garage. That was able to supply enough power to run the optimate, lights ect. At some point I'm going to sort the lighting in my garage I have now one 100w bulb just isn't good enough. Just make sure its a heavy duty 13A cable, mine worked off a switched live which was fused.

Its like 50-60 meters from the mess to the garage's... So a no go really.

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

Its like 50-60 meters from the mess to the garage's... So a no go really.

Thats is not along way to be fair, or is it more that the cable would get in way? I don't what the lay out is, could it not be ran along the ground, building line ect?

Or is there not a facilties manager? Why not ask them to help sort something out?

Pretty major road and several other garages in the way

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by ThEGr33k

There are higher power ones as well...

Yea the £40 one will chuck out 260mW on a bright sunny day. A lemon and two bits of copper might do better.
None of these things will 'charge' your battery, they will offset the self discharge.

My mate has one of those hooked up to his bandit which i'm sorry to say has been started 3 times in the last 2 years (he works away) to go for its mot's and its started first time each time, I had one attached to my bike for 6 months when i was in hospital and again started every time, yep a cheap option but works surprisingly well. only flaw is suckers for attaching it to car windscreen but i just screwed it to the garage door. hth