Huge wrote:
On 2012-02-13, Steve Firth wrote:
M.Joshi wrote:
Thanks for all your replies so far. I have considered pulse chargers
such as the CTek and others however, I don't have a mains socket outside
near the front driveway. I would have to have a trailing mains lead
from the front door and that wouldn't be ideal for a long-term solution.
The CTek ones are also quite costly too.

I read many positive reviews about using a solar charger to keep a car
battery trickle charged and prevent it from going flat due to long
periods of not being used.

There are some good reviews for the Maplin's solar charger but it is
only a few watts.

Another one I saw on Amazon/eBay looks like a folding briefcase and is
about 4W.

Absurdly useless.

I decided to look at a 10W panel as I assumed this would produce an
adequate output with reduced sunlight in winter.

Still not big enough IMO.

After reading some of the replies to my original post, I'm not so sure
now?

FWIW, I use a 50W panel to keep the battery on my tractor topped up. I have
a solar charge controller to avoid overcharging. It takes about three days
to charge the battery (110AH) from 40% discharge then the controller
switches to trickle charging.

Is not your tractor somewhere considerably sunnier than hereabouts?

Oh yes, forgot to mention that. The solar panel averages 3A on a
south-facing roof. We do have cloud, snow, fog etc but only up to March.
After that it starts to get warm again. Even in winter we can have long
sunny periods. November was 20-25C, only turned wet and rainy in December.