Solar battery charging

Mikex

I guess this is the best board for this post.

I have recently purchased a 12v battery powered electric golf trolley.

Before my purchase I discussed the possibility of attaching a solar panel to the golf bag to assist with battery charging. The trolley manufacturer had already researched this possibility and had concluded the arguments in favour of providing solar charging for this application were very weak. They sighted the cost of the panel, the reality that the battery would still need charging after each game and the high likelihood of the panel becoming damaged due to all the transportation in the car boot. They also concluded battery life would not be significantly improved. Additionally as a minimum the solar panel would have to generate sufficient extra charge to warrant its own extra weight.

They said they were able to supply a panel etc if I felt it was justified purely on environmental grounds.

I accepted their conclusions and now charge my battery from the mains.

However I am still curious and wondered if anyone on this forum could offer their wisdom.

The battery is lead acid 12v 22aH

The motor is 230 watt.

It is recommended the battery is charged immediately after each use and charging could take between 6 & 8 hours.

Thanks

Mike

Mcfi5dhc

I am a big fan of solar PV (I have 8 huge PV panels on my roof!), but it isn't always suitable

MY solar PV powers my oven, my iron, my TV, my PS3, my lights, my fridge etc, but not all at the same time. When I am using too much, I take off the grid.

I could buy a panel & a battery for each of these devices, at say £100 each (lets assume that one panel will power that one device). Well, I don't use my PS3 every day - sometimes I go weeks without using it. So it would be a bit wasted for that. And sometimes I would use my PS3 a lot, and the solar wouldn't be able to cope. Same with your golf trolley - sometimes you'd use it loads, sometimes rarely.

Plus, for each array (panel plus battery) you'd want a charge controller - these can work out to be quite a lot of money (if you don't use one, your battery will be screwed very quickly). You'll need other gubbins as well.

So, in a nutshell, you'll be spending £200 - £300 on equipment which would power your golf trolley sometimes, but the rest of the time is just sitting there dormant.

You'd need to keep the panel outdoors all the time to get enough juice into the battery, and you may not like the idea of leaving your entire golf trolley (or even just the panel) outside all the time. Don't imagine that it will be able to charge up your battery just while your playing golf - thats a big battery you have to charge!

Any idea how much it costs to charge your battery for the 8 hours each time? Multiply it by the number of times you'd charge it in a year, and then multiply it by how many years you'd want to keep the trolley. I bet it is no where near the £200 minimum cost I have outlined above.

Finally, there are panels that fold up like a briefcase - these are the only ones that you could safely transport on the boot of your car often. And you'll pay for it! Probably push the price up towards £400 all in.

Hope this helps

Cardew

Agree with the post above. These 'mini' solar panels are realy only viable for equipment where mains voltage cannot be used.

The little chargers producing a couple of Watts would be no good to charge a 22aH battery. Even something like this costing £540 would not really cope.

http://www.selectsolar.co.uk/pics/solar-power-laptop-charger-kit-with-MP3450-battery.php