Question by Sean:
Can I just leave the solar panel connected to the automobile battery?
I recently acquired a solar panel and charge regulator. I was hoping to use while at this week long camping/music festival thing in the summer. My friends always kill their batteries charging their phones and such. I was planning on connecting the panel and regulator to the battery with alligator clips. Can I just leave it connected all week? Would it damage anything?


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Answer by Brutus
Check the specifications on the regulator to make sure it will block current from flowing backwards from your battery. You do not want to discharge the battery at night time. You can also check this by placing a 100 ohm resistor in series with one of the leads to the battery and throw a towel over the solar panel and see if there is a DC voltage across the resistor. If not remove the resistor and reconnect the lead to the battery, your solar charger should work fine.

Make sure your solar panel and regulator are massive enough recharge your battery during the day light hours. Estimate the watt-hours of use per day you anticipate from all of your equipment and then divide this number of watt-hours by state 8 hours of good sun light to come up with number of watts you need to size your system.

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