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Thread: solar panel & batteries

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    Default solar panel & batteries

    how practical is it to use solar panels to charge a battery?

    how do you work out what size panels are required for what sized batteries if you wanted to have it fully charged within one day?

    or is this just something stupid?



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    Senior Member BCNZ's Avatar
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    It's not a stupid question, but you do need to provide a little more info like the capacity of the batteries you wish to charge, the size of your panels etc.

    As an example, a 120W panel will provide around 10 amps in direct sunlight at 12 volts - more than enough to charge most batteries in a day - in fact probably too much - you will need a regulator if you are to use it for charging purposes.

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    I was just thinking why dont they have night light with a solar panel to charge a battery. a LED based night light shouldnt need that much juice right?

    I was just curious, didnt really have a particular battery in mind.

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    Senior Member BCNZ's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nerd1 View Post
    I was just thinking why dont they have night light with a solar panel to charge a battery. a LED based night light shouldnt need that much juice right?

    I was just curious, didnt really have a particular battery in mind.
    I am sure they already make something like that. I bought a torch for my young girl a couple of years ago that had high brightness white LEDs on the front and a small solar panel on the side. To charge it you simply leave it in a sunny window for a few hours.

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    Cool

    There are also house numbers that are LED lit & solar charged

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    Junior Member TZB's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by nerd1 View Post
    I was just thinking why dont they have night light with a solar panel to charge a battery. a LED based night light shouldnt need that much juice right?
    You have seen the el'cheapo garden lights at Bunnings eh?

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    Quote Originally Posted by TZB View Post
    You have seen the el'cheapo garden lights at Bunnings eh?
    and they work all night, they have 2 1.2 V recharcheble batteries inside,which would cost you morew to buy seperate then the 2 lights,lol

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    Senior Member z80's Avatar
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    they dont work those crappy Bunnings lights.

    they come on far too early and dont last the night.

    give them a miss, 10 watts aday aint expensive.

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    I'll have a look at the bunnings options.. didnt think to look for something like that.

    I've got a 8w energy saver but its too bright so I'm looking for something smaller and came across a LED night light that plugs into the mains. I thought that was a bit of an overkill

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    This is my ongoing solar project.

    I haven't done much with it in the past couple of weeks... still testing combinations.

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    Its quite practical and you don't need huge panels to give usable power.
    I have a couple of 5w ones on the roof that power the patio lights, a couple of 12 LED downlights in a toilet at the rear of the house, a 10 led light outside the back door, a 24 led spot light that shines on the patio table (manually switchable) and a small home built stereo system. They charge 3 12v 7AH Gell cells and never gone flat in 6 months. I have another 3W one that is used to continuously trickle charge the 12v 33AH gell cells I use to power my Astronomy Gear. The lights are triggered by a simple light dependant resistor circuit that switches them on at night and off in the morning. I'm no electronics tech, just a tinkerer so not really hard to do.

    Glenhuon

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