Solar Power Panel

[bladesj]

I been thinking about purchasing one of these units for charging my battery(s) on the boat during thoses 3+day fishing trips with no eletricity. Does anyone use these and are they as efficient as advertised?
If you have one, would you buy another one?
Have you heard any good, bad, or ulgy on these solar powered products?

Thanks for any insight!
Joey
"What the mind of man can concieve and believe, he can achieve."

[adam7456]

You need to check out how much power the panel puts out. Most might be good for topping off a battery but that it. Unless you turn your whole boat into a solar panel you will not be able to charge your batteries.

For example this panel is 14"x14" and put's out 7 watts. http://www.siliconsolar.com/shop/cat...ger-p-134.html


7 watts at 12 volts gives you 0.58 amps. Most trolling motor batteries have around 100 amp hours of charge in them. So if you used 50% of one battery it would take you over 86 hours over that solar panel opperating at 100% to charge the battery back up.

[MarkW]

Yeah, I would have to agree. A solargizer type panel would not be enough to charge a dead battery or even a weak one.
I was given a solargizer years ago and had it on my main battery. I don't know if it worked, but when sunlight hit it, it turned on a little light that showed it was working. I used the same main battery for a little over 3 seasons and it never went dead. Did it do its's job? I don't know???? My battery was never dead---that's all I know. The wires finally broke and it flew into the lake somewhere. Didn't rush out to replace it and my battery still isn't dead----so who knows?

[artcarney_agr]

My neighbor is sponsored by a solar panel company that makes them for bass boats. He told me that the idea behind the solar panel is not necessarily to keep the battery charged. What it does is by supplying that small charge continuously, it essentially keeps the battery free from impurities and helps to keep it fresh and retards "memory" development.

In short, it makes the battery last longer and keeps it from developing a "memory".