Solar charging

[Paulro100]

I keep my E86 Coupe in an underground garage.
I don’t use the car that much and in order to try to keep the battery charged I ordered a small solar panel from EBay, sone aluminium angle iron and fitted it into a small gap of light above the car.
It faces south and I hoped it would provide enough energy to keep the battery in good shape. There’s no electric point for a trickle charger.
Imagine how pleased I was when the car started on the button after 12 weeks without use.

 

[Jembo]

Been using one for the first time & longest so far is 7 weeks, so over the winter will be interesting.

Personally I think solar is better, as it replicates the use / no use cycle... though waiting to see if all’s good by end March next year.

 

[ErrErrminator]

I’ve been thinking about solar charging too. My garage is remote from the house and has no power. The Zed is not likely to get much use over the winter, so I’m keen to keep the battery topped up and in good condition. A small panel on the garage roof is an option which I’ll be looking into.

 

[Paulro100]

I’m just up the road, in Bristol.
I think it’ll work. Many of the panels now just need light, not necessarily sunlight to charge.

 

[Jakg]

I’ve been thinking about solar charging too. My garage is remote from the house and has no power. The Zed is not likely to get much use over the winter, so I’m keen to keep the battery topped up and in good condition. A small panel on the garage roof is an option which I’ll be looking into.

If your garage has no power, how do you see in there?

Why not fit a much larger panel on the roof connected to a spare car battery and connect some lights to that. Then when the car is in the garage it can charge from the same setup.

I have a similar setup (sans car!) in my sheds to have power for lights / WiFi / charging phones.

 

[ErrErrminator]

If your garage has no power, how do you see in there?

With difficulty!

Being a modern single garage with lots of other stuff in there as well as the car there is precious little room. Any work on the car takes place on the driveway in daylight.

Good idea re the separate buttery and solar panel to give lighting and charging. Will give that some thought.

 

[goon]

I used on of these on my z4 and my old Rover 3500 when parked on the drive for any length of time and measured the output in daylight of 300mA, just about enough to prevent the alarm etc from discharging the battery.

 

[buzyg]

What a good idea.

 

[z4too4]

Now I have the Z, I use two 6w 3.5ma output in parallel to keep the E90 battery going. Connected up through the OBD2 port. I will switch them over to the Z when the weather turns.