solar battery charger

[GlasV162]

Does anyone know of a good solar charger? I have a 14' Sea Nymph with a 25 hp Yamaha 4-stroke and would like to find a solar charger for it. Thanks.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: solar battery charger

Good grief this topic just never goes away. Doesn't the engine have a charging system? My data shows a 25 HP four stroke has a 15A charging system. Why do you need a solar panel.

You have a 14 foot boat! A solar panel big enough to charge a battery would need to be darned near as big as your boat and probably cost just as much. Look at the current output numbers for the solar panel. Yes, you can use a small solar panel to keep a battery topped off (such as a battery that is stored for six months of the year during winter), but those typically have about 1/2 amp output. A 100 AH battery would take 200 hours to recharge at that rate.

 

[jauguston]

Re: solar battery charger

If you are looking for something to maintain the battery when the boat is parked you might check Harbor Freight. I think they have a 15w panel. With good sun it would probably just about match the natural discharge rate for your battery if it started with a charged battery. To give you some idea what it takes to actually charge batteries with solar I recently installed two 130w Kyocera panels on my motorhome with a MPPT controller. With that in good sun I get a maximum of 16a of charge for a cost of $1500.00.

Jim

 

[reelfishin]

Re: solar battery charger

I have one that I believe came from one of the mail order houses, it came with the boat but it does seem to help. I can let the boat sit with the bilge pump for weeks and it keeps the battery topped off. The battery also seems to be lasting longer in that boat, it's been in there for four seasons now. It mainly only maintains the starting battery but I have considered adding another one for the deep cycle as well.
They don't make much power, but its enough to keep the battery up and ready if you don't run it everyday.