Solar panel in ice shack?

[heyguy]

I have a 6.5X10' well insulated fish house with a 16,000 btu forced air furnace. I have a brand new 12volt marine battery and I usually get about 20hours out of it when running my furnace. Just curious if anyone has ever used a solar panel to keep their battery topped off? The fan on the furnace is the only thing this battery is powering. How big of panel would I need to make it a few days on the ice? Any info would be helpful. thanks!

[chris63]

Draw of load(in amps)divided into amp hours on your battery.This gives you a rough estimate of your operating time.Battery capacity(Ah)=current drawn(I)x time(H)......or Time=battery capacity/current drawn....or Current drawn=battery capacity/time.Keep in mind the battery life will decrease with age.Solar technology is improving all the time and like anything else the more it becomes available the price will come down.(As it already has.)Good luck.Happy fishing!c63

[BartmanMN]

look into Wind power like the one guy on here uses. I believe it works very well for him since there is always some type of wind blowing accross the open lakes in the Winter.

[local laker]

i put a 15 watt panel in a similar house to run camper stlye lights & a computer fan. it adds maybe 50 % life to battery,but does not eliminate having to charge if you use it alot.

[olbaidhh]

Use wind... solar - to get it worth while is costly. My batteries are always topped off.

[timjones]

Use wind... solar - to get it worth while is costly. My batteries are always topped off.

Have a question on the wind generator. Does this system you made need to be locked down during high winds or doesn't it matter with one this size? I know the big ones have wind speed limits on them so they don't self destruct.

[clayton08]

You can make one too out of an old alternator heard older chevys are the best know a guy that does this out in western mn I wouldnt personally do the panels I just bring mine in every night and if it needs a charge when Im in there I just hook the truck up and let her charge for awhile.

[Grainbelt]

olbaidhh, Can I ask how much do you have into the wind power rig? Is the output D/C or do you have to have an external inverter? What is the amperage output to the battery? Does it have auto shutoff ability when the battery reaches full charge? Does it cause any noise/vibration?

Thanks

[adamr]

I bought a 80watt panel and regulator from hsolist 120 dollars including shipping seems to take all week to charge the batteries seems to work ok

[Whoaru99]

Yup, the estimates are fairly straightforward.

Total available capacity vs. how much power you are using vs. how much you're putting back via the charging system all factor into whether or not a solar panel of "X" watts will do what you want.

If you're using 2Ah (amp-hours) and the charger is putting back 1Ah, then your battery run time is more or less doubled. However, you can't look at it simply hour by hour because a solar charger doesn't charge at night but you may be using power at night. So, you have to factor total use vs. charge time to arrive closer to the real numbers representing your actual use pattern.

[olbaidhh]

its all in the mount... this one can handle 200 mph

[olbaidhh]

$200 DC 14.4v yes- just clamp the pos to neg. shuts it down. use a meter...for full charge. sounds like a snow machine off in the distance.

I have a lot out here posted do a search on wind generator from about 2 years back to now.