diy solar

diy solar

Charged my car battery with my Jackery 160

ecwashere

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Joined
May 16, 2020
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Because of quarantine, our cars don't get driven very much. The 2016 Honda CRV seems to have a lot higher parasitic draw when sitting in the driveway than my 2008 truck. I think these newer cars with their constant scanning for key FOBs (vs the ones where you have to depress a button on your remote) really draw a lot more current when sitting around.

Anyway, if I don't drive the CRV for 5 or 6 days, I have to jump it. Today I decided to connect my Jackery 160's 13V DC output with some decent alligator clips to the battery terminals and let it go for a couple of hours. The display showed a 250W surge followed by a 30W draw that eventually dropped to about 5W. Once the car battery was up to about 12.4V, I disconnected it and started it up. It probably sucked about 40Wh from the Jackery.

I figured the Jackery has regulated DC output, so it would always stay around 13V. It probably wouldn't have charged a totally drained battery, but it might be something useful to someone in a pinch who has a lot of time but no access to a jump start or proper trickle charger. I notice that most smaller portable power stations never advertise this feature.

Is there anything inherently unwise about what doing it this way? Is it ok to do this in the future when I can't easily jump it? I'm an civil engineer by trade but pretty new to circuits.
 
IMHO, get a new 12V for the CRV.

Not particularly unwise in an emergency, but the wise thing is to replace your CRV 12V. :)

Honda charging systems kinda stink, so once a battery starts to behave unfavorably, it's done.
 
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