M Pete

Can you please post a link for the solar/battery setup? I have a detached garage which I was just think of doing this to. are you running a battery tender out there too, or did you pull the battery?

tom__w

I was originally going to use the solar setup to trickle charge the car. But when I read that you shouldn't disconnect the battery before disconnecting the solar panels (apparently you should never connect the solar panel without a battery attached), I decided I would just drive the car more. Too much of a PIA to remove the solar panel connections each time. I may try to find a DC > DC trickle charger. That would work well.

For the solar, here are the items I purchased:
Panel Controller (not the MPPT type but should be good)
Panel to controller Battery Panel Mount In-Line fuse solar to controller
I also got a bunch of other stuff like LED lights, a switch panel, rodent repelling shake and electronics, etc.

The setup is really very easy. Much easier than I thought it was gonna be.

I'll be hooking up the panel tomorrow after I get all of my in-line fuses.

tom__w

All powered up. Too bad it is a cloudy day here today. Still getting 0.3 Amps:

M Pete

Very nice. I got the smaller one for quads this winter. When I got to the end of putting it up I was thinking to myself why the instructions didn't want the lower side supports put in prior to setting the anchors. It would have made squaring it up much, much easier.

Carlo_Carrera

Top tip, put out some mouse traps, a lot of them.

T Kono

And larger rat traps as well.

M Pete

How is the electrical portion of the winter storage going? I've been doing research on a solution for my garage and think I'm going to put in a solar setup in so that I can have lights and run two battery tenders. None of that should draw much power at all (I still have to calculate exactly how much) and am thinking of getting a deep cycle RV coach battery for storage. How many hours of light are you getting on your panel and is it keeping your battery charged enough?

I have not decided if I should get an inverter to run AC or just stick with all DC. The only reason I'd do the AC is for the trickle charger for the car batteries, but then I'd just run AC LED lights as well. In theory though I would think I could charge them directly off of the DC storage battery, but I'm no electrician and need to investigate that further.

my04996tt

I place moth ***** around tires, for toys stored in my barn. They work pretty well, no issues for several years. .

2fcknfst

You're pretty handy, that looks good!

tom__w

So as I described before, I was originally going to use the setup to trickle charge the car battery (i.e. direct from the solar controller to the car, without the use of a external battery / inverter / trickle charger). But one of the things that you have to be careful of is that you disconnect the solar input before the battery. Essentially the solar controller will go nuts and create VERY high voltage levels at the battery charging side if not disconnected first.

It will work great for that purpose if you are careful. One thing to make that easier is to get a 20 amp in-line breaker for the solar side. With the push of a button, you can disconnect.

I decided that I would drive the car enough (every other weekend) that a trickle wasn't needed.

So now I have the solar charging a 35 amp - hour SLA battery. This battery runs 2 led lights (fog lights for a car) and 2 pest deterrent devices.

We've not had many full sun days since I put it in .. and unfortunately leafless trees block some sunlight when there are no clouds. But overall it is doing an ok job at keeping the SLA charged.

If you plan on using a battery / inverter to power a trickle charger, make sure that you have unobstructed sunlight to the panel. The overall loss of electrical efficiency will be fairly significant with that setup. But at least you won't have to worry about disconnecting the solar side because the external battery will always be connected.

The most current I have gotten from the solar panel has been 1.6 amps. It is rated for just under 6 amps (100 watts).

It is definitely a fun project that I've always wanted to do.

if I can answer any other questions, post here or PM me.

2fcknfst

The CTEX I use on my STi trickles .1 amp when conditioning is completed, so I think you're doing OK on those cloudy days.

We use compact arrays like that for collecting data wayyyyyy out in the boonies - the further north we go, the less sunlight we get during the winter, the more panels we add...

Happy it worked out for you.

Cheers,

lowmiler

tom__w

EXACTLY!!! LOL

2fcknfst

Ugh! That is about the worst thing I can imagine.

tom__w

What is to the right of 'Turbo' on your decklid?

Does it look like this? lol