Hey guys, I’m considering setting up a solar charger for my roof pump set up. I currently have only one deep cycle battery for my roof pump but I am adding another next week. I don’t have electric start machines so as I see my options for charging, they are (1) bring a 110v charger to the job and charge from a wall outlet (2) wire a charging circuit from the truck alternator with an isolater (3) solar charging. I’m thinking the solar charging would allow me to always keep my batteries charged and provide some ongoing charging while I am using the pump.
Any thoughts? I am a complete novice at anything solar.
About an hour or two at a time. At the two hour mark it seems to be getting pretty weak. I don’t know how long it should run on a full charge so I can’t compare it to anything.
Your battery should run for hours with a full charge. Do you have a battery tester? Maybe its not charging all the way. I dont use my 12v very often so I just keep it plugged in at home and grab it when I think I’ll need it.
I’ve become pretty sharp with solar due to my off grid cabin and what not. At 3 amps it will take about 24 hours to xharge a 12v deep cycle battery. You only get decent sun for about 7 hours a day. Maybe a little more for you since yours is portable and you can move it. Say 9 hours. So roughly 3 full days of sun, times 2 for the other battery. Solar will help you, but it’s trickle charge at nightor something. It takes a solid week to recharge our 5 battery bank after a weekend at the cabin and we are running 480 watts of solar panel. A $20 solar controller will make you mad when you realize your stufff is either fried or uncharged. Call me tomorrow
So, what you’re telling me is that this isn’t really going to work that well for helping the system while I’m using it, but on the days I’m just house washing, the solar can be trickle charging the batteries to keep a full charge. Still sounds kinda cool to me.
Just run a 7way plug off of your truck not a big deal at all. Whenever the truck runs you are charging. If your batt gets low then fire the truck up. Just be sure you fuse it.
