Solar panel battery chargers?

[deaceye]

I can not find info on a forum, anyway what do I need to get one of these attached to my fish house? I am looking at a 5 to 10 Watt charger. It also seems you need a charging regulator in place to keep your battery from over charging? I know there are people using them any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[hovermn]

I'm no expert, but a 5-10 watt charger won't need a regulator. It's putting out such a small amp flow that it won't boil your batteries. Also, it's not going to charge the average size deep cycle well, if at all. Maintaining it would be fine, but not for charging. Problem with charging with such a low charge on a deep cycle is it'll start to sulfate and eventually kill your battery. Like I said, no expert, but I'd consider a larger solar panel for charging...

[Nisswaguy]

What size would one need for charging? If mounted on the roof, does snow and ice become a problem? Do you need to get up on the roof to clean it off all the time? Or does it stay relatively clean?

[adamr]

I went threw all the same questions with my new shack last year so I did nothing and paid attention to what I thought would work according to the sun. My opinion was that as the winter was going on there was no sun. always cloudy also I hate to penetrate the roof and what to do when you travel with it. also what do you do just aim it south. So I decided that if im gonna do anything it will be get a wind generator from cabelas or northern tool for 500 bucks comes with a regulator ive also heard of guys running them to a heater of some sort which wouldnt be so bad either. The only draw back I can thick of is itll help catch the eye of a theif gonna pick a shack to brake into. Any other opinions thou and im all ears.

[jigginjim]

I was thinking of doing the same thing, but after doing to Game Fair, I decided to just get a small generator. Have a deep cycle just to see when you first arrive, to start the heater. Then fire up genny, charge the depp cycle then swith it off, run the lites from the genny.

[adamr]

I seen on a lodge fishouse last week they had a factory one on the side was actually 2 panels. Would like to hear how well they work I seen in northen tool they sell a 15 watt solar panel for 100 bucks that says they charge in cloudy conditions.

I just hate to send my friends to my fish house and theres dead batterys. We have been using a propane lantern thou for lights and seeems to work very well gives off heat and has a self ignitor.

[mtwalleye]

This past weekend I mounted a Coleman 9W solar panel on my boat lift to keep my trolling motor battery charged. Installed it Friday night with about 2 hours of daylight left. Battery was at 55%. At 10:00 Saturday morning I checked and the battery was at 70% charge. I didnt think that was bad for over night. We will see what it looks like this coming weekend. I am curious as to how fast it would charge a drained battery. I think for maintaining a charge it will work good. Bought on the big W web site for $67. $1.97 shipping. So this is kind of a test. Did'nt spend a ton of money. I will post back at the end of the week with results on how it charged the battery over the week.

[bassislife]

All you need is a 15 watt to charge your lights. They don't need any charge contoller because they are not powerfull enough to fry your wiring.

They are not strong enough for your furnaces, but do fine for lighting.

[bolanfish]

I have used solar panels to charge my trolling batteries in my boat while on a lift. I only get to fish weekends and hardly ever have to charge them. If you use your electric to troll quite a bit an electric charger is the way to go.

On my last fish house, I had a 12 x 36 inch solar panel for the batteries. I only used the batteries for lights, charging my phone, a portable dvd player and it worked good. Again I only fished weekends and my fishhouse sat in the driveway during the week with the panel up.

[bassislife]

Best solution is buy yourself a 45 amp converter, and a cheap generator for a couple hundred bucks. You can use the generator for camping as well!