solar charging through 12v socket

campandfly said:

Hi Loz
That panel is similar in size to mine.
Is it about 7-10 watts and did you plug it directly into the cigarette lighter type socket with no regulator??

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Have a very small sunsei regulator inline..

Loz said:

Holy thread resurrection batman!
Camper electrics are in the VIP download area.

As I have explained before, you CAN trickle charge through the 12V sockets on the cali because they are permanently live.
Generally on cars you cannot because they are only live with the ignition on and back feeding would cause you to liven up circuits that are supposed to be off.

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I am affraid the leisure battery wiring is not that simple as the main battery with a socket.
Don't have access to vip downloads, but if anybody shares the diagram I can look into it and give some practical info regarding the use of sockets.
Building a 2kilowatt lithium battery for the van right now and looking at some practical ways to use it with existing electrics without huge modifications.

Sp0_0k said:

I am affraid the leisure battery wiring is not that simple as the main battery with a socket.
Don't have access to vip downloads, but if anybody shares the diagram I can look into it and give some practical info regarding the use of sockets.
Building a 2kilowatt lithium battery for the van right now and looking at some practical ways to use it with existing electrics without huge modifications.

Click to expand...

Fortunately I do know what I'm talking about as I have uploaded most of the electrical resources in the download area..
They are all fused (15a) directly to the leisure batteries.

Though, you mention trickle charging battery via socket.

Sp0_0k said:

Though, you mention trickle charging battery via socket.

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If you understand it you will know you can...

.5 amp panel through a solar regulator to a permanently live socket fused at 15A...

and you "trickle charge" lets say half empty battery?

You do understand trickle charging doesn't mean "slowly charging", right?

sorry I don't understand, what's difference between trickle charging and slowly charging?

Trickle charging happens naturally at the end-of-charge, when the lead-acid battery internal resistance to the charging current increases enough to reduce additional charging current to a trickle, hence the name.
So the is a lead-acid specific type of "maintenance" (keeping it at top voltage by supplying the current equal to self-discharge).
If the circuit can accept the current via the leisure sockets, doesn't matter if you charge at 0,5 or 10amps. Again important to see the circuit, as there is a hookup charger involved as well.
Might be possible to make an extra emergency charger for both batteries.

Sounds like you are just using meaning less arguments to get hold of the diagrams.
As I said, they are available in the downloads section and you can access to them by becoming a VIP member.

The topic was about keeping batteries topped up with a small solar panel and a 20w panel connected through the 12v sockets with the solar charge regulator does eventually bring up my batteries to 100% and keep them that way during the time it is stood still.