Trickle Charger options for en-block garage

[AllyBee]

My garage is an en-block job with no power, I'd like to get some sort of trickle charger to keep my battery topped up. I know you can get solar power ones that sit on the roof, my question is are they any good? Do they produce enough power to keep a car battery topped up? If so any recommendations. If not any other options?

[acme]

I thought I may have faced this option a while back and I intended to get a spare battery and swap over during the lay off period, charging the spare one in the house (not sure if there's any issues there??)

Might be worth a thought - I should add not being in the engine bay my batteries easy to remove.

Alternatively a very long extensio lead safely layed for dalylight hours once every few weeks?

[furrywoolyhatuk]

Iv just got one of these, seems to offer the best value against power:

http://mobile.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=99...

[nagsheadwarrior]

Im in a similar boat,i have two cars which are in powerless storage,i bought a cheap solar power charger like the one linked above but a lot cheaper and probably less powerful,i tried it but the battery still went flat although the car has an aftermarket alarm/immobiliser which probably doesnt help.
As my cars are off road til spring ive just taken the batteries off and will keep them at home now on a battery re-conditioner which i think is the best option.

[furrywoolyhatuk]

I had a smaller one, 4w I think, like you, and that's why ended up getting the larger one as in my link above. From my observations it seemed just to delay the process. As you said it was the immobiliser/alarm not to mention the cold weather that doesn't help. I'm hoping the 13w charger should make a marked difference.

Of course it helps if you have a good battery to start with!

Edited by furrywoolyhatuk on Friday 21st December 07:33

[henrycrun]

furrywoolyhatuk said:

Iv just got one of these, seems to offer the best value against power:
http://mobile.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?moduleno=99...

But not waterproof.

[thinfourth2]

You want one of these waterproof panels

http://www.sunstore.co.uk/12v-Solar-Panels-c-286/

I'd go for the 20w one

and a charge controller

http://www.sunstore.co.uk/12v-Solar-Charge-Control...



Fit the panel on the roof and then run the wires into the garage and fit the charge controller inside with two leads going to the car.

Or if you feel fancy

Get a larger panel and a larger controller. Then run that into a leisure battery inside the garage which can then be used to run an inverter which will give you limited amperage 240v or even just some lighting



Of course this is being eco so what you really want is to get a small petrol generator and fit it with a long run fuel tank so it can run for 24/7 to charge the battery.

[98elise]

What about fitting a battery isolator?

[MajorProblem]

Get a 12v one and power it from the cigarette lighter socket.

[AllyBee]

Thanks for the ideas. Think I'm going to have ago with the solar panel/charge controller option (although I like the idea of getting a charger that plugs into the ciggy lighter ). Does this controller look like it will do the job, says for panels up-to 50w http://www.sunstore.co.uk/EP-Solar-Landstar-5A-12V...