On Sat, 30 Jan 2021 20:19:00 -0500, micky
wrote:

In alt.home.repair, on Fri, 29 Jan 2021 19:47:32 -0800, Bob F
wrote:


I said earlier, according to the solar folks here, you count on your
collectors getting about 5 hours a day at the rating in full sun. That
is how they are rated anyway.
If it is a 12v collector, rated at putting out 0.625a that is 5 x
0.625 x 12 or 37.5 w/hr per day.
That also assumes Wong Dong in China was honest on the rating of his
collector.
I just know it works in my driveway and the one on my boat works out
on the dock. The mower stays charged from the collector in the roof of
the shed. I finally got around to putting a lighter plug on the mower
to make it a fast connection.


You really think a solar cell sitting in one window of a car is really
going to get anywhere near the ideal possible sun from the solar charts.
I sure do not.

My normal parking place is facing almost east, and even pointed up hill
a tiny bit, and the solar panel, about 12"x7" with a 3/4" non-solar
frame around the whole thing, and the car started all winter at 7:30AM
when it's still cold, 2, maybe even 3 winters.

Both my vehicles sit facing south in front of the garage here in
Ontario and sometimes sit 2 weeks without starting with NO charger and
they always start unless my wife leaves the lights on. Still the
original battery in the 2014 Kia and the battery in the '96 Ranger is
5 years old. -18 friday night and they both started like it was +20
(Degrees C)
Because the windshield tilts back the sunlight hits the panel evven at
noon, but soon after that the roof starts to get in the way.

Of course the sun is lower in the sky in the winter, to I guess it shone
on the solar panel from the side, (but I don't think any got to it from
the side window).

And IIUC Baltimore doesn't get sun as directly as Florida does.

And before I used it, several times it was too dead to start. I'd have
to go get the 10-amp charger and charge for a little while.


(I may have mistakenly been powering two separate car burglar alarms
then, and draining my old weak batter even faster.)