Solar Battery Rechargers
 

Been thinking about these for awhile. About the only disadvantage I can see right away is that this one won't recharge 9v batteries.

Anybody have any experience with this type? Or can somebody recommend another one?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...WL._AA280_.jpg
Here's the link on Amazon:

Here's a link to another one from Silicon Solar:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Ba...d-D-p-135.html

And this one might be a good idea - you can use this to plug in anything that charges from a 120v outlet.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...TL._SS400_.jpg

Ideas, anyone?

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

any knowledge of solar power basics
will be a good thing to have when TSHTF

have you looked into something like this ?

Solar Auto Battery Trickle Charger - $29.99

http://www.conservastore.com/images/...ar/04-0184.jpg

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

I just use a regular wall wart charger for my nicad batteries, a 150 watt inverter supplies power to the wall wart and my laptop - all from my big battery bank, 300 watts of PV charges them.

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

I got a solar charger similar to that and batteries. Some of the batteries are packed to go with the charger and some I charge from grid power and use. The batteries last for many many recharges I can attest. At least the ones I got do.

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

Which solar charger is the one you use AMforPM?

I'm looking for one that will work efficiently with Sanyo Eneloop batteries.

How many hours does it take to charge for example?

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

Bump this back up for AMfor PM. I'm interested in picking up one of these myself, and I want a good one.

Re: Solar Battery Rechargers
 

I did have one of the ultra-cheap ones, and although it was weak, what I really needed was a "fully-charged" indicator and Shutoff light. You don't want to pull half-finished batteries or boil them either.

Looking at components, if there was no space/weight restrictions, I'd be tempted to make my own like BSD. That way, if any one component failed, or an improved version appeared, you could simply change that component. Also if you needed to loan only one part (car battery, inverter) you could do that without risking the rest.

Other than Wal-Mart, here's some toys to make that happen:

http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/w..._ite=inverters

I'd get a jumper-box with an inverter if I could find a good one. It has a 8ah battery, is great as a jumper box, and can be tied into a car battery or AGM/Gel pbattery pack, or as a buffer battery for a daylight solar panel. I don't like the look of this model, but this is the idea: http://www.redhillsupply.com/VEC1026.htm

Here's portable panels to make this happen: http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo...ar_panels.html
Available on eBay. There are also military solar rolls of various types from iSun and others.
http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/de...gl_charger.php
http://www.modernoutpost.com/gear/de..._sunlinq_6.php
etc...

The standard Maha chargers are worldwide, so actually run on 12v and have an adapter.
http://www.nimhbattery.com/index.htm
There may be enerloops that are similar. Then the charger could plug into either the battery box, panel direct during sunlight, or wall power.

This is a system that can do a lot, but of course it's large and expensive compared to a 4x8 solar AA charger. For example, though, the cheap one I had would take 2 full-sun days to completely recharge 2 AA batteries, as the battery density is now over 2500mah. Panels only collect 13% of the light unless you hand-solder a satellite-grade panel, so size is everything. Especially when sunlight is irregular. Imagine having a dead flashlight but not being able to charge for 5 days because of a Nor'easter. That's when you'd need it most.

TS