Quote:
Originally Posted by tulsag
Wintering for 9 months in Greece on the hard next month. They just informed me that no power will be available over the winter (long story).
I have a large 12volt GELL battery HOUSE bank (800 amps) and can link my starter battery to it via a switch. I have a 5watt (24volt it says on the label so I guest that means 10watts at 12volts)
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May I politely suggest you learn the basics of electricity before messing about with any
electrical systems, At least learn the difference between Amps, Amp hours, Watts and Volts. You may like to read this:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ml#post1933764
Just to keep the terminology straight - your house bank capacity is 800 Amp hours - not Amps.
More importantly, Watts is Watts, regardless of Volts.
If it's 5 Watts @ 24V, it's still 5 Watts @ 12V. The only difference is that it will deliver twice as many Amps at 12V. It will still only put up to 5 Watts into your system.
Quote:
1'X1' portable solar panel with a cigarette lighter plug. If I leave the 12v outlet breaker 'on', will it be OK to use this as to keep the batteries full? (I also have alligator clips that I could easily connect to a linked battery also)
The only 'direct to the batteries wired' parasitic load I have on during the winter is a CO2 monitor alarm and a couple small 'breaker on' LED's bulbs.
1) Is the cig lighter safe for this?
2) Will this panel be enough to keep up with my GELL battery loses?
Thanks for the help!
Mark
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1. In terms of
current, it is safe. 5 Watts is less than 1/2 an Amp on a 12V circuit, so would be quite acceptable.
BUT: I wouldn't use this unless I knew a lot more about the panel. Especially, what its actual output voltage is. When a panel is rated at 12 or 24V, that generally means that it is intended for
charging a nominally 12V or 24V system. A 24V panel is likely to put out around 35V in practice and that is far too high to plug directly into your 12V circuit.
2. An 800 Ah Gel bank could well have a self discharge rate of 2-3% per month, which means you need to put back about 24 Amp hours per month. Call it 1 Amp hour per day with the small parasitic loads. 5 Watts in winter will give you maybe 15 - 20 Watt hours per day. That is a little over 1 Amp hour per day at 12V nominal, so it would be sufficient
if it could be safely connected to your batteries