Solar car chargers?
Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2019 11:17 am
Anyone know anything about solar car chargers?
With my wife as a stay at home mom and me working from home, we rarely drive much and when we do it's rarely far enough to recharge from the cranking. As such (plus the cold) we have 3 cars that either won't start or are very reluctant to do so.
The charging systems are all good and the batteries are all healthy. This is simply vampire drains, disuse, and not being driven enough to fully recharge.
The 996 has always been bad about being dead or hard to start if left idle for 3-4 weeks and I've often thought about setting up a solar charger (street parked so I can't leave the frunk open and no power access anyway), but never followed through.
Anyone here setup a solar charger for their car before? Tips, info, recommendations, websites with clear information rather than sales material?
What I would like to do (for the 996 anyway) is setup a permanent installation on the rear shelf. Is it possible to set something up so that it is permanently wired in where you don't have to disconnect it before starting the car?
The other part I'm not clear about is how much capacity do I need? I see everything from 10W to 300W, but combined with not always having full sun I'm not sure how to figure out all the math to determine if it is good enough without being overkill (e.g. $$$).
With my wife as a stay at home mom and me working from home, we rarely drive much and when we do it's rarely far enough to recharge from the cranking. As such (plus the cold) we have 3 cars that either won't start or are very reluctant to do so.
The charging systems are all good and the batteries are all healthy. This is simply vampire drains, disuse, and not being driven enough to fully recharge.
The 996 has always been bad about being dead or hard to start if left idle for 3-4 weeks and I've often thought about setting up a solar charger (street parked so I can't leave the frunk open and no power access anyway), but never followed through.
Anyone here setup a solar charger for their car before? Tips, info, recommendations, websites with clear information rather than sales material?
What I would like to do (for the 996 anyway) is setup a permanent installation on the rear shelf. Is it possible to set something up so that it is permanently wired in where you don't have to disconnect it before starting the car?
The other part I'm not clear about is how much capacity do I need? I see everything from 10W to 300W, but combined with not always having full sun I'm not sure how to figure out all the math to determine if it is good enough without being overkill (e.g. $$$).
