I have a new 12v battery meant for my Sierra I'm not using. I'm a closeted prepper and thought it might be cool to get a solar powerd 12v battery charger to charge this battery which would be used to power a set of LED lights in my (large) work shed. The house is powered by a generator in an emergency but I have nothing for out back and would rather not run extension cords that far.
So how would I set this up. It seems exceedingly simple to do. Am I wrong?
Whats the duty cycle on the lights? If you're just running them here and there you should be able to get a little 5w solar panel and be fine forever. If it's long usage on the lights you need to pick lights based on an amount of amp draw that will let you get reasonable on-time from one 'charge' of the battery without discharging it to the point of harm. The solar panel won't keep up with the lights unless you buy a big panel and actually have sun.
I've done exactly this with an old 6W panel, a surplus controller and a Odyssey PC680 that was no longer able to start a car. Hooked up the controller to charge the battery, wired in a motion sensitive LED light inside the shed. No problem at all. It was a best-case because I had consistent, good sun and the daily draw was so low as to almost be unmeasureable. But boy, did it make a difference to that cave of a shed.
The only think you have to figure out is how long you want the lights to be able to run before the battery is too low. That'll determine the size of the battery or the amount of lighting.
Then you have to figure out how quickly you want the battery to recover from typical use - if you're working there all day every day, that means a lot of solar power. If you're in there for 20 minutes every weekend, you have a week to recharge the battery so you need very little solar to stay on top of things. Don't forget that you won't have ideal charging conditions all the time.
In terms of the set up, it is that simple.
One thing to check is if the solar panels have an integrated charge controller or not.
Other than that, usage will tell you if the battery-panel size is big enough. There are some good calculators for the panel size and battery size you will need- and many include your nominal weather and sun load.
I did something similar for a water circulation pump for outdoor fish. It works great and is much easier than running power to the location !
All I can see is the actual lights are 4w.
And it's more of an emergency lighting thing. It'd be used sparingly and for minutes at a time.
I thought a solar battery tender would work and maybe the same amount of LEDs that people use for pickup bed lighting.
Think hurricane/blizzard/blown transformer backup. I have a wood stove and other equipment and lighting is the only thing missing at the moment
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