Will It Charge It?

Andy Moore · 26 February 2008, 15:52

Will a solar charger charge up a flat, or flattish, battery? Or will they only top up a fully charged battery?

Limey Linda · 26 February 2008, 16:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Andy Moore

Will a solar charger charge up a flat, or flattish, battery? Or will they only top up a fully charged battery?

No it won't unless the solar panel is as big as your house

jwalker · 26 February 2008, 16:35

A reasonably sized one will charge a battery. I've got one on my boat roof and another on my caravan roof. They both feed through a 3 stage regulator (al40 will be pleased with me.) and therefore make a good charging system.

Cookee · 27 February 2008, 09:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by jwalker

A reasonably sized one will charge a battery. I've got one on my boat roof and another on my caravan roof. They both feed through a 3 stage regulator (al40 will be pleased with me.) and therefore make a good charging system.

Caravan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

jwalker · 27 February 2008, 09:59

I did think twice before mentioning it.

jyasaki · 27 February 2008, 17:04

It will charge, but it may take a (really long) while.

jky

ian parkes · 27 February 2008, 23:58

A customer of mine has just installed approx 5 Im square panels on his barn roof conected to the grid and his house . inside there is a box showing the power they are putting out , i was amazed on a bright dry day last week the meter was showing around 2kw most of the day .

he tells me they are not ordinary solar cells but Photovotaics (not sure thats how its spelled but that how it sounds )

codprawn · 28 February 2008, 02:29

Did he say how much it cost?

Remember 2kw is about 20p an hour.

Typically a 2kw installation will cost about £10,000. Even assuming you get 2kw for 8hrs a day and 200 days a year(no chance in UK) that only equals £320 a year - that means it will take 31 years just to break even. that is not counting the fact that £10,000 stuck in a high interest bank account will be worth quite a lot in 30 yrs time!!!

Our local Tesco has a 40kw array that cost £2 million. On a typical overcast day it can read as low as 120W..........

They are actually photovoltaics

jyasaki · 28 February 2008, 16:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by ian parkes

he tells me they are not ordinary solar cells but Photovotaics (not sure thats how its spelled but that how it sounds )

Photo = light
Voltaic = electricity

Not sure why that would be different than other solar cells.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cell

jky

ian parkes · 28 February 2008, 20:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Did he say how much it cost?

Remember 2kw is about 20p an hour.

Typically a 2kw installation will cost about £10,000. Even assuming you get 2kw for 8hrs a day and 200 days a year(no chance in UK) that only equals £320 a year - that means it will take 31 years just to break even. that is not counting the fact that £10,000 stuck in a high interest bank account will be worth quite a lot in 30 yrs time!!!

Our local Tesco has a 40kw array that cost £2 million. On a typical overcast day it can read as low as 120W..........

They are actually photovoltaics

He just said it cost a lot , i could ask him . He is aware that it will take years to break even but the "green issues" are his pet subject.

They were drilling deep bore holes the last time I was there for use with a heat pump to run underfloor heating . the solar cells are going to produce the power for the heat pump and when its not in use he sells the elcrtric back to the grid .
i just wish they would get it sorted and the floor layed so that i can finish the kitchen i have made for him , but no one can work out the pipe diameters and pump size required .It seems the teknology is too new for anyone to really commit to proper specifications .

Another customer has a place by the river with ponds etc and that has a water wheel producing over 6kw and a heat pump running from copper coils in the river that runs 21 huge old iron radiators, its a really huge old place and warm as toast

codprawn · 28 February 2008, 21:36

Ah now water power is a TOTALLY different matter. They used to run whole engineering works and woollen mills off things like that - makes great sense and watermills can be very pretty!!!

ian parkes · 28 February 2008, 22:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

Ah now water power is a TOTALLY different matter. They used to run whole engineering works and woollen mills off things like that - makes great sense and watermills can be very pretty!!!

Yes the place iam talking about is an old water mill . I rebuilt the huge water wheel and all the sluice gates etc , It was amazing to see it all come to life as I let the water back into the leat.
There was 3 stories of wooden cog wheels amd millgear etc all turning , they put a big glass panell in the floor so you stand there and watch it all working . it made me feel that we have moved backwards in so many ways with tecknology.

codprawn · 28 February 2008, 22:37

What a job - beats being stuck in a server room with everyone screaming at you because the whole system is down just because some idiot forklift driver switched off a microwave link - want to swop???

ian parkes · 28 February 2008, 23:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by codprawn

What a job - beats being stuck in a server room with everyone screaming at you because the whole system is down just because some idiot forklift driver switched off a microwave link - want to swop???

I don't get many like that , but ill take the chance and swap wages

Most of the time people want things for next to nothing and ready yesterday with 2 months credit .

codprawn · 28 February 2008, 23:41

Oh I know that feeling well. Big companies are great as they have IT people who can see just how good we are - in smaller outfits they don't have a clue so they think that when something goes wrong it's your fault.

That's why I am changing business!!! Setting up a website for parcel and pallet deliveries. A bit like Parcels2Go but better and cheaper(I hope). Will be called Speedshift.