Posted by Don in Missouri [108.162.236.91] on Friday, May 27, 2016 at 00:03:52 :
In Reply to: OT Solar battery charger? posted by The Dodge Boys [173.245.56.25] on Thursday, May 26, 2016 at 23:12:27 :
I tried one of those little Harbor Freight solar tenders and couldn't tell that it did anything. If a battery was good and the vehicle had no drains the 1.5 amp tender didn't seem to matter. If the battery was bad or there were drains in the vehicle, the tender couldn't keep up.
I hope to hear that others had better experiences than the $15 toy that I tried. It sounds like a great idea. You get what you pay for, and a good piece of equipment probably costs more than that.
Now, I have installed 7.5 kw of grid-tied solar panels on my barn roof, and have terrific experience with that installation. There is plenty of energy available from the sun, it just comes down to the right technology to make it useful.