Inexpensive Solar Power for engine starter batteries – Top Suggestion. Looking to save on solar solutions? Check out our guide for affordable solar options to keep your starter battery charged without breaking the bank. Cheap solar for starter battery doesn’t have to cost a fortune. Learn about budget-friendly solar power options to maintain your boat or RV battery without overspending.
All batteries self discharge over time, so if you are away from your vehicle for some time, fit cheap solar for starter battery. It provides a trickle charge to maintain voltage.
It really is easy to do. On my boat I have two solar systems. The first is a simple system that looks after my two starter batteries, and the second setup looks after my domestic, or house, batteries. There is a major difference between the two systems. In this post we will start with the system that looks after my starter batteries. We will discuss the larger domestic system arrangement in my next post.
As may be the case with most boaters plus R.V. and caravan owners, The engine in our boat does not turn on much in winter, and because of this the starter batteries may lose a percentage of their charge by natural wastage. It is possible that after a layup of two or three months you have experienced a flat or reluctant battery. This can be very frustrating. A simple solution to this is to install a small solar panel. The one that we have cost less than £30 and came complete with two panels, wiring and PWM solar controller. This is cheap solar for starter battery and simple to install.
Shown above is the PWM controller and one of two solar panels. The panels measure approximately sixteen inches (42cms) by ten inches (25cms). As mentioned, each panel comes with its own USB charger connection. In total you will have a total of four USB. Remember though that these panels are meant as trickle chargers so to be effective I’d probably suggest using a maximum two outputs in decent weather. These definitely represent cheap solar for starter battery maintenance.
With there being two panels in our pack the kit came complete with a connector wire that looks like a stethoscope – two wires going into one. Plug one connector into one panel, and the second wire into the other panel. This is wiring in parallel, perfect for a 12-volt system. the third wire is the one that will go to the controller, but not yet!
Before connecting that wire to the controller, first you must connect the battery to the controller. Hook up a wire to the + and – on the controller. Red is usually +positive and -black is -negative. Connect the other end of the black wire to your starter battery negative terminal and finally connect the positive+ red wire to the positive battery terminal. Doing this first tells the controller to expect either a 12v or 24v battery setup. Now you can now hook up the wiring from the solar panel(s).
In daylight you’ll see the controller sending current to your battery. The better the weather, the more power your starter battery will receive. Please note. If in the very dark days of winter you decide to give the starter battery a little extra power from an external battery charger – disconnect the battery pos+ wire from the controller. You may only do this very rarely but leaving the wire connected will probably damage the controller. I know this from experience. No big deal though – a replacement from Ebay was about £5! Cheap solar for starter battery indeed.
The panels shown above, although small are big enough to keep the starter batteries charged over the winter period. Although it is not unusual for small panels to be connected directly to the batteries, it is in the batteries best interests to have controlled voltage through the controller. At these prices why would you not! Cheap solar for starter battery personified! As I mentioned earlier. The PWM is the most basic controller you can use, and I would never suggest using this sort of equipment on anything more demanding than the cheap solar for starter battery we’re discussing here.
Here are links to other solar energy links on this site:-
Should I fit solar on the boat
If you want to know more about your starter battery take a look at this detailed description from Wikipedia
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