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Solar panels to trickle charge a car battery... what do I need?

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SnooziSuzi:
Hello all,  It's been a long long time since I posted anywhere on this forum, but I know you guys know your stuff so I'm turning to you again.

Hello to everyone that may remember me  :tongue2:

When I get my shed built I would like to include a small solar panel to trickle charge a car battery so that I have power to charge my phone, or run a light (LED) or maybe even charge up some cordless power tools if and when I get some.

I have searched, and there are old threads relating to solar power but none really answered my basic question:  What do I need to get?

The power would only be drawn on a weekend normally, so the panel has all week to charge the battery, so I don't think I need a particularly heavy duty panel; 100w should do it, I think.  My thinking behind this is that on normal days we should get from 8 hours of daylight in the UK (I'm in Durham, so 54 degrees North) so that could be up to 800w daily, over 5 days (power would be used at the weekend, so I didn't count those days) so up to 4kw a week potentially, although I don't need that much power and the reality is that in winter there may not be that much usable daylight anyway.

Should the inverter be the same as the panel wattage?  If the inverter was rated at 500w, what would the effect be?

What do I need to look out for for the battery? i.e. is a car battery better than a truck one, etc?  What about lead acid vs lithium ion? 

Thank you in advance for looking at this and I hope to be chatting with you soon  :wub:

Aunt Sally:
Our Mr G (Growster) will probably have the answer for you.  He’s our Mr Fixit here.

SnooziSuzi:
I knew someone would know  ;)

Aunt Sally:
Ohhh.. seems I was wrong (a very rare occurrence), Mr G tells me that after a very unpleasant experience with an electric cooker he is banned from sparks and only allowed to play with mechanical projects.   :ohmy: ::) :nowink:

Growster...:
Phew, thank you Aunty!

The memory of that incident still causes a huge shudder, and you may remember that some time ago, our garden muncher suddenly stopped, and I went to see what the problem was WIThOUT TURNING OFF THE POWER...

I was suitably chided by everyone here, so that's another reason why sparks are left to someone who actually knows what they're doing - sorry Suzi...:0(

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