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Solar battery charging?

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Beerbarge

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I need a way to charge my batteries but have no shore power. The boat is in the lake all summer and we have a decent stereo system that drains them. I'm curious if anyone out there uses solar to charge/maintain their batteries?  Im very green in this area and not sure if I should look into a panel with a controller to power a small charger or if there's a panel direct option without a controller that connects directly to the batteries?


Any ideas welcomed. 


Many thanks
 
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Beerbarge


I have a power boat lift for my pontoon without dock power so I would run an extension cord every time I used the boat. I got tired of dragging that around so I had a solar panel installed. My thought would be to kill the  power to the boat to assure that you have enough to fire it up for the day or install the solar power. It works great!!!  tcpip95 sent you a solid link. Good luck...
 
Have you considered adding a second battery? Ours sits in a slip all season and so far no problems starting (last year, anyway). Are you saying that you jam out at your slip and then when you go to start your engine to leave, it's dead?
 
I have a small solar panel installed. Works great. I have the southern exposure when I'm docked, my boat has the blackout scheme so I mounted the solar panel to the boat panel with a strong two sided tape. It blends right in and looks good...and it has been there for a couple of seasons with no issues. Do it.


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Pond Scum said:
...my boat has the blackout scheme so I mounted the solar panel to the boat panel with a strong two sided tape. It blends right in and looks good...and it has been there for a couple of seasons with no issues...
Click to expand...

Peaked my curiosity.  Can you post a couple pictures of your set up?
 
I use something similar to these , I have 2 of them, one for each battery.  I only use them in the winter when the boat sits for a month at a time with non-use.  I put a plug on each battery and solar panel so it's easy connect disconnect. They don't put out much but they do the job... my batteries have been fine going on 4 years now and I never pull them from the boat.


 http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200660262_200660262
 
Vikingstaff, I forgot to take pics this past weekend when at the lake. But I do have a couple of older ones I took one night after I first put it on. You cant see much but I used 3M two sided tape, put it on the stern fence and just ran the wire up and under the storage compartment cover to the battery. Was planning on doing a better job of wiring it once I determined it work well, but I haven't done anything with it yet. Solves the issue with friends and family sitting out there all day listening to the radio and whatever else they do while I at work....


Here's what I used but I'm sure any model would work.


   solar 2.jpg                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          



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