Recommend me.....a solar battery charger

[Toddy]

My garden is alight again there's enough UV light now to charge the solar lights

It occurs to me though, that having a charger that would recharge not just mobile phones, but batteries for led lights and laptops, might be no bad thing to have.

Any recommendations for something reliable ? I don't mind trickle charge, but it needs to work in our often overcast skies, and better if it'll do it from a sun facing windowsill.

 

[Nice65]

The solar garden lights, nor my van leisure battery will charge on overcast days. The older and cheaper panels need actual sol.

But I’ve heard of panels that will, so hopefully Red or someone will be along to help out. I’d love to replace the 200W on the van.

 

[Stew]

The solar garden lights, nor my van leisure battery will charge on overcast days. The older and cheaper panels need actual sol.

But I’ve heard of panels that will, so hopefully Red or someone will be along to help out. I’d love to replace the 200W on the van.

You should get a check of the output on that panel.

I pulled an old 125w panel out earlier to start doing a trial of my shed roof (weird angle). Cracking sunny day here and even tilted full on facing to the sun, max I could get is 22w on it. It's a fair age panel so I expect it to reduce in output but I was quite surprised!

 

[Broch]

My garden is alight again there's enough UV light now to charge the solar lights

It occurs to me though, that having a charger that would recharge not just mobile phones, but batteries for led lights and laptops, might be no bad thing to have.

Any recommendations for something reliable ? I don't mind trickle charge, but it needs to work in our often overcast skies, and better if it'll do it from a sun facing windowsill.

This is the panel I bought in 2021 for the Shepherds Hut (it fits the curvature of the hut roof):

Amazon.co.uk

and this is the cheap charge controller I got:

Amazon.co.uk

Together with a 110Ah deep discharge lead acid battery this charges and provides enough power for lighting and device charging for a week of use even in winter or in summer with full tree canopy cover.

I'm sure there are better units out there but this combo meets my requirement.

 

[johnnytheboy]

I agree with Brock, 110ah deep cycle battery and a solar charger, you can wire in isb or use an inverter with that battery.

Below is a solar charge station we made for a Pheasant pen, the little panel on top wired into a split charger that charged two 110ah battery’s that ran the electric fence, we never needed to supplement the charging, the little panel done it all.

 

[Toddy]

@Broch
@johnnytheboy

Thank you that looks ideal.

I know much better performace without anything in the way, but if it were sited on an indoor windowsill would it still charge effectively?

 

[Broch]

It would, but I'd be tempted to hang the flexi panel out of the window from the window sill and feed a wire through if that was feasible. That panel is over a metre long and half a metre wide! Obviously, you can get smaller lower wattage units.