On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 11:32:10 +0100, Alec wrote:

I have a customer with a small chalet with no electricity. I fitted a
basic domestic alarm connected to a 75 ah leisure battery. What would
be best to trickle charge the battery wind or solar power. Also the
charging device would have to be about 20-30 feet away from the chalet
because of tree cover. Any help much appreciated. Let me know if you
need more info.

I have a slightly larger installation at my farm, with 800AH of battery,
however I started with 100AH of battery so I've been through what you are
trying to do. The short answer is that you need both and a charge
controller. For what you are looking to do one of the Rutland charge
controllers will fit the bill. They have two inputs, solar and wind and
will dump the current from the wind generator to a diversion load when the
battery is fully charged.

I would suggest that you start with a solar panel, and then add a wind
gneerator if necessary. However I also work on eletrical/electronic
installations on motorways and if you look you will see that for low
current drain stuff we use solar only, for higher drain uses we have both
wind and solar.

You'll forgive, I am sure my tetchiness at tradesmen who take on a job that
they are unqualified to do and then come to a diy group to find out how to
do it.