Hello.
I am just experimenting a little with some old panels I got from some one and I have a hard time finding a answer.
I would like to make one panel charge a small battery bank. I was going for a few used 18650 from old lap top batteries in 3s and wanted to use a very cheap aliexpress charge controler (about 5 euro's including shipping) that supports lithium ion batteries. Even though Adam Welch says they start trickle charging when reaching 4.2 volts and thus are not suitable for lithium ion I would like to to try this set up anyway. I also found some cheap balancer boards but I cannot find any that can stops charging when tempereture drops below 0C/32f. It is my understanding that while trickle charging may reduce battery life a but but charging during freezing with instantly kill the batteries.
I saw some solutions talking about heating pads (50 watts) or even blankets? But those are for big size solar setups or car batteries they heat up just before use but they use the utility grid for that. What about all those solar solutions I see next to the road/highway. A panel on a pole with some sort of box below it. Or the panels on
buoy's in the middle of lakes and rivers. Do they all have enough solar power to keep their batteries heated I cannnot image that to be true.
My question is , what kind of simple and cheap setup is normally used for small off grid solar solutions that have to power al small light or blink a buoy or something all year round?
Regards
Hans
I am just experimenting a little with some old panels I got from some one and I have a hard time finding a answer.
I would like to make one panel charge a small battery bank. I was going for a few used 18650 from old lap top batteries in 3s and wanted to use a very cheap aliexpress charge controler (about 5 euro's including shipping) that supports lithium ion batteries. Even though Adam Welch says they start trickle charging when reaching 4.2 volts and thus are not suitable for lithium ion I would like to to try this set up anyway. I also found some cheap balancer boards but I cannot find any that can stops charging when tempereture drops below 0C/32f. It is my understanding that while trickle charging may reduce battery life a but but charging during freezing with instantly kill the batteries.
I saw some solutions talking about heating pads (50 watts) or even blankets? But those are for big size solar setups or car batteries they heat up just before use but they use the utility grid for that. What about all those solar solutions I see next to the road/highway. A panel on a pole with some sort of box below it. Or the panels on
buoy's in the middle of lakes and rivers. Do they all have enough solar power to keep their batteries heated I cannnot image that to be true.
My question is , what kind of simple and cheap setup is normally used for small off grid solar solutions that have to power al small light or blink a buoy or something all year round?
Regards
Hans