Club 80-90 Forums

My question is pretty specific. I've taken a look at the ton of posts on solar panels but am still not sure about this. Basically I want to get a solar panel to compensate for the drain on the main battery caused by my stereo memory. So, what power/type of solar panel should I get?

I'd prefer to get something from maplins or flea bay! I'm guessing the really low wattage trickle chargers may not be up to this task but I don't know!

How about thisone: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=348061" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

or this: http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=99760" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Obviously I'd prefer the first one as it's much cheaper but am willing to pay the extra if I need to.

And, one more question, could either of these panels power one of those portable coolboxes? Like this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Campingaz-Power ... 574&sr=8-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; or this one http://www.amazon.co.uk/Campingaz-Power ... =8-1-spell" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ??

Yes, I do have a fridge in my van but more chilling is needed!!, beer, wine, more beer, more wine, oh and some food...

Thanks.

Michael

Why not just wire the radio to your leisure battery ?

As Ian said

But the second panel is whats needed, the first will only keep a battery toped up.

The cooler boxes are a waste of £££

Just think how hot your van gets in the sun, the coolers will struggle to keep things cold and safe.

And the solor panel will not keep the battery toped up, you need a better panel for the coolers

Thanks guys, from reading other posts I thought it wasn't a good idea to wire the stereo to the leisure battery - I thought I saw someone say that the stereo will run it down v. quickly. Perhaps I misunderstood...

As for the panels, I'll have to reconsider on the cooler box front!! That was not just for the van.

Anyone else got any views or suggestions for suitable solar panels?

MT

Stereos (whilst on) will run a starter battery down a darned site quicker than a leisure battery but even if you're using a conventional battery as a leisure, it still pays you to wire stereo to that - unless you want to be pushing your van every time.

As for the memory, it won't run down a good second battery that fast unless the battery is in its autumn years. If it does, then theres something seriously wrong with that stereo....

ive got mine ( head unit, 600watt amp & sub ) wired to lesuire battery which is bout on its last legs but it'll power it on a night campin

Generally speaking if the memory alone is draining the battery (and trust me, had a lot of experience of this problem), then the battery just isn't up to the mark. Ofcourse higher powered stereos when actually switched on, can consume a fair bit and will if left on for hours and hours, flatten the battery - a particularly weak one in 45 minutes or less! - had that issue myself. I now run both memory and stereo power from second battery and anything else that isn't directly related to driving goes on the secondary battery. Having had duff batteries (that I was assured were in fine condition), any depreciation in their ability to hold a charge will just give you a headache....

memory amps... 0.05A on my pioneer
I think either you have other issues or yer batts shagged

Thanks everyone. Well, it's a new stereo, only a little simple one - one of those German no CD ones, with aux in for MP3 players, nice and shallow to fit in the dash without protruding. So, I'll just wait and see if there is any drain. I'll just get a little solar panel later in the year to keep the battery in good condition when I'm using the van less.

I'll post my findings.

MT

I have the same problem of battery drain on my Aircooled joker, stereo is one of aldi's finest, battery is a bosch silver less than 6month old left the van on the drive for a couple of weeks went to start it and nothing.

horizontal kipper wrote:I have the same problem of battery drain on my Aircooled joker, stereo is one of aldi's finest, battery is a bosch silver less than 6month old left the van on the drive for a couple of weeks went to start it and nothing.

As I said before mate, wire it to the leisure battery, that's designed for such things.

Good to meet you all at the weekend

Ian

Kipper, It should last longer than 2 weeks on standby.

I will have my 7th month old (car battery) used as the leisure battery, available soon if you want it (free), as I will be getting a proper one.

I think if I were not using my van for two weeks I'd be isolating the battery/batteries anyway. The other alternative (other than a better battery) is to put in a switch to cut off all supply to the stereo (incl memory). That would be ok for me as I just don't listen to the radio and the only other memory function would be to remember last track played and not sure I'd need to retain that information over such a long period. It could be be that some stereos (and I assume there would need to be some kind of transformer or voltage regulator in the stereo to supply the power needed for memory) are not well designed and possibly even badly designed, consuming far more energy than is needed.

ive been through this one too..
my new stereo drained the starter battery in about a week i think.. so i rewired it all from the leisure batteries in the back. i spliced the mem and 12v power lines together too. but yes it did still drain it after a good while.. cheap stereo, lots of features though! so i just put in a switch in the power line under the driver seat, where i had ran the cable. solved! and saves me rooting under the bench/bed to remove the inline fuse, as was my previous solution

Even more simple solution .... run your van.