Eco project follow up
by andy on May.26, 2009, under Blog, Green
In a previous post I explained a new eco project I was going to work on for camping trips or other “off grid” purposes. Instead of purchasing a separate battery, I decided it would be easier (and cheaper) to just utilise the car battery. I picked up a cheap solar trickle charger from a car boot and skipped the inverter as every device I wanted to use could plug in via the car cigarette lighter point. Total cost £10, bargain!
However, I discovered that the trickle charger only produced 1watt, which wasn’t enough to keep anything going by a long way and I flattened the car battery on the first day of camping.
This is obviously going to cost me more then £10. So I’ve now purchased a 13watt briefcase solar panel which will recharge the car battery a fair bit quicker. And to prevent full discharge again I’ll also be getting car battery protector.
The advantage of using the car battery instead of a seperate one, is that the majority of the wiring is already there, and should the battery go too low, you can always start the engine and leave it idling over to help charge up if the panel isn’t sufficient.
Next camping trip is the British Grand Prix. I’ll let you know how I get on.
2 Comments for this entry
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Hi there
Welcome to my home on the web. I'll bog occasionally, but most of the time you'll just see an automated "LifeStream", feeds from my other online activities. Raising money for Welsh Air Ambulance
Quotes of the Day- James Thurber"I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed." […]
- James Thurber
May 26th, 2009 on 20:27
Does Bear Grylls know about this method?
May 26th, 2009 on 20:35
Ha, Only if he can fit his car into his backpack