Bongo Fury

Maplin are advertising this item - around £12. Can anyone comment on it's performance? If it really would keep the leisure battery topped up between trips I reckon it would be a good investment. My Freda is my only vehicle so usually it gets enough use to stay charged but as I get older and winters get colder and fuel gets dearer it can stand around longer and the cold flattens the battery too.
Ron

Hi
Sorry to say most of those 12 volt solar panels are a total waste ...To do any good whatsoever, you need a panel at least half the size of the roof...you are obviously aware that it doesn't require full sun to run these panels,but you do require panels of a high quality, or you just won't get much output at all....at the end analysis, how long do the solar lights in the garden work for...a few hours, at most....I'm afraid it's a case of you get what you pay for!
Cheers
Helen

Thanks - rather what I feared. How do they get away with advertising them as suitable for trickle charging a caravan or boat battery?
Ron

I fully agree, the one mentioned being 2.4Watts equates to 0.2amp charge current and that will be under the best possible lighting conditions - i.e. Mid summer,mid day and clean glass! I would guess that you might get an hour or two's charge at that current in those conditions. Today close to mid winter, solid cloud, I doubt if you would get more than 0.005Amps charging current! Foe reference a mains charger would start at about 4-10 Amps and reduce down to about 0.5-1 Amp at the float charge stage.

That sort of output will at best compensate for typical self discharge for a battery but it is unlikely to actually charge the battery.

Yachties tend to go for between 50 and 100 watts or even more, you need to work out how much power you use and fit solar panels to replace this. Considering the price of panels is falling all the time they are a good and affordable way of providing power when mains hook up is not available

I have one which I use on one of our spare cars on the drive, I leave it connected and on the dash when the car is sitting for a while like now with the snow, it has helped stopping the battery running flat. But the car is a nissan micra, no a great big bongo,lol.

I've got one of the bigger units - i.e. about half the size of the roof. Use it for keeping the battery topped up during 3 day mountain bike races. It delivers about 1.5A peak (which isn't much but enough to keep radio and LED lights going for much longer), however, maplins have a £200 unit on offer at the moment which looks more promising.

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/forum-83.html
This should give you the info you need.