Solar panels

[PP Angler]

Has anyone ever used solar panels for charging deep cycle batteries?? I noticed they sell everything from trickle-charge panels to 10, 15 and bigger wattage panels, I would use it to keep the battery charged for lights and a TV in the fish house, but don't know what size would be the best to make sure you'd have a full charge each day.

Any help would be great!!

[Moose-Hunter]

From personal experience... Get the largest panel/panels you can afford. I use to have a 10w panel/charging unit I used for remote open water trips to keep my one battery charged for depthfinder use. I was trying to charge a standard deep cycle boat battery. Yes it did help, but just couldn't keep up. Eventually I was fishing "in the dark".

I'm not that knowledgeable on solar panels, so hang tight. I'm sure an expert will come but shortly.

[LABS4ME]

One of our houses has a panel on it yet... at best it will keep and unused battery at full charge. They said it is a trickle charger, but we too can use the battery faster than it replaces it. I checked into a larger unit for what I needed, Really expensive! It's cheaper to buy 2 really good batteries and a good charger. You can buy a good 2000 watt Honda generator for cheaper than the correct pannels and connections needed to fully charge a deep cycle.

Good Luck!

Ken

[hawkeye43]

labs when you on url,step out side and recharging is right there, the wind. for the price of 4 batterys you can get a wind generator ans problem solved. they work better than a person thinks.

[mtreno]

wind - have been thinking about wind power - anyone using a setup like that????? i looks like it would not be cheap but if it works and will last maybe its worth the money - who has a working system?

[ice_shack]

Take a look at solardyne dot com for wind generators.

[hawkeye43]

Its about $550 for a wind gen. Its the next best thing, next to hyd. lift on the HSOList.