REPAIRS PAGE 66
GOING SOLAR – ish
We all hear about global climate change and the need for renewable energy sources,
so here’s my contribution albeit on a very modest scale – trying out a solar
powered car battery charger.
Now I guess that hi-tech members will already be clued up on these, but the
majority of members may not be – as they are not widely available – hence this
article to advise and let all members know.
Right then, how does it work? – just a series of solid state photo-voltaic cells that
take energy from the light photons falling on them and convert them into electrical energy.
I have personally thought that the UK was a bit poor for sunlight, but I am
pleasantly surprised at the performance of the unit that I have hooked up to my
S/C, which lives outside and runs at best once a month.
Bear in mind that these units don’t produce that much power, they are really trickle
top up chargers. Connected to the cigar lighter they produce a modest charge,
even on a grey UK winters day.
It’s early days yet, but I’m hoping it will do enough to avoid me having to lug a
normal battery charger out to the car every couple of weeks and mess on with extension leads etc.
So, if the truth was known its more about being lazy than going ‘green’! The unit
I’m testing came from Maplins and cost £15 – but there’s probably other places that sell them.
By the next issue it should have had time to prove if it is any good or not – I
will post a follow-up article.
ALAN JONES
GOING SOLAR –AN UPDATE
In the last issue I wrote about experimenting with a
solar powered battery charger to use on my Supercharger, which can sometimes sit
for weeks on my drive without being used.
It looked promising at first as a means to avoid
dragging a conventional battery charger and flying leads out every week or two.
Unfortunately the results to date have not been encouraging, it hangs on to the
battery charge for only about a week and then the battery goes ‘downhill’.
This is despite improving daylight weather, even up here in the far North East.
The battery drain (to my knowledge) is just the clock
oscillator and the immobiliser/alarm, so nothing unusual there. Admittedly the
battery is well into ‘middle age’ but then again (like some of the editorial
staff) - this is not that unusual.
However I must admit that I don’t really trust
cigar lighter connectors for milli-amp type connections, I’d far rather use
croc clips straight onto the battery terminals, you can squeeze them to bite
into firm contact. I could of course modify the charger to do this, but frankly
its not worth my effort on such a small issue. Why keep pursuing a potentially
lost cause? Instead I have installed a permanent 240v supply to the drive, and
an ‘Airflow’ type battery conditioner will soon be in use.
If anyone has had better results just let me know and
I will publicise it. (It could well be that my battery is about to expire, so a
fairer test is called for.)
ALAN JONES