It's in there somewhere

[LAC]

(7 March 2018, 01:23)Pete Grey Wrote:

(4 March 2018, 17:54)LAC Wrote: Hi Pete

It's a Mercedes but I can't remember the model number.

Fortunately I didn't need to use my car urgently and I knew it would be flat as I had been away for a while. So in the end I ran an extension cable out of the house window and hooked up a battery charger. Since that time I installed an 80 Watt solar panel in the roof box of my car (so hidden and water tight when not in use) and can use it to charge the battery if it goes flat, and use it to charge some power/battery boxes I made should we have a power outage - time to charge is weather dependant of course.

Hi LAC

I like the idea of the solar panel in the roof box charging a battery box.

Perhaps a panel could be temporarily fitted on roof bars, run the leads to the cigarette socket to charge the vehicle battery, or charge a spare leasure battery in boot.

I remember reading Mortblanc saying he once had a vehicle fitted with a spare leasure battery connected to an inverter, a mobile power supply.

Yes you could set it up that way temporarily if you chose to.

Another thing I should perhaps mention is that when I use the solar panel to charge the car battery I run it through another unit I've built that is basically a Solar Regulator or sometimes called a Charge Controller, which I have secured inside an electrical enclosure box and wired it internally to two car cigarette lighter receptacle sockets for the 12 volt input and 12 volt output respectively, which are then screwed into holes drilled into the side of the enclosure. The solar panel then connects to the 12 volt input via a male cigarette lighter plug and the 12 volt output then connects to a male cigarette lighter plug attached to a cable with crocodile clicks at the other end that attach to the car battery, or another male cigarette lighter plug which can then plug into the cigarette lighter socket of the car.