Truck Trickle Charger

Truck Trickle Charger

	5 Watt 12 Volt Solar Power Portable Panel PV Photovoltaic Good for: RV Car Truck Marine Off Grid Battery Charger Cell Phone Laptop Water Pump Gate Sale Price: $35.99
	The GP-5-12module features ploy-crystalline photovoltic cell technology. The 36 square solar cells are encapsulated beneath high transmission tempered glass using an advanced, UV resistant thermal setting plastic...

	Industrial 12-Volt Solargizer w/ Lugs Model 735X130- Solar-powered system designed for heavily-used or stored vehicles and equipment such as cars, trucks, vans, RVs, construction and agricultural equipment. Eliminates sulphur from lead plates and trickle charges all 6- and 12-volt lead-acid batteries. Sale Price: $89.41
	Solargizer is a proven, solar-powered electronic device that uses our revolutionary ReNew-IT Pulse Technology? to safely prevent the main cause of battery problems and failure: sulfation buildup on lead-acid battery plates...

	Industrial 12-Volt w/ Lighter Plug, Model 735X125 - Solar-powered system designed for heavily-used or stored vehicles and equipment such as cars, trucks, vans, RVs, construction and agricultural equipment. Eliminates sulphur from lead plates and trickle charges all 6- and 12-volt lead-acid batteries. Includes a plug that fits into the vehicle cigarette lighter socket. Sale Price: $89.41
	Solargizer is a proven, solar-powered electronic device that uses our revolutionary ReNew-IT Pulse Technology? to safely prevent the main cause of battery problems and failure: sulfation buildup on lead-acid battery plates...

Can a solar panel be used as a NiCd cordless tool battery charger?

I can't figure out how to charge a Ni Cd (B&D 18V Firestorm) battery directly with a solar panel so I've come up with an alternative which might or might not work. I thought I would connect an inverter (I found a nice 400W for $30) to my trucks battery and plug the B&D Firestorm battery charger into the inverter. Then I was thinking I could use a 5W solar panel to trickle charge the truck battery and keep it connected after the Ni Cd is charged to ensure the truck battery is topped off. The truck would not be running during this process. Will this solution work? Is there a better solution?

Your 5W solar panel has to put out about 15 volts or higher to charge a 12 volt battery. 5 watts at 15 volts is only 0.3 amps, which is only enough to handle the internal leakage inside a large battery, plus a bit.

If you have a 100 amp-hour battery, that panel would take 300 hours of bright sunlight to charge it. But I do agree that it will keep the truck battery charged as long as it gets sun.

Make sure you put a diode in series between the panel and the battery to prevent the battery from discharging through the panel when the sun goes behind a cloud.

I'd be worried that if you charged the 18 volt battery frequently, the panel would not be able to replace the lost charge, and your 12 volt battery would wind up discharged. That 18 volt battery is 1.2 amp-hrs (if I got the correct one). That is 27 watt-hours. Allowing for losses, you car battery will have to deliver over 30 watt hours to charge it. Your solar panel will take over 6 hours of bright sun to make up that difference. That is over 24 hours this time of year. So if you recharged it more than once every 2 days, you will lose charge in the truck battery.