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 Topic: Using a solar panel for lights
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12/9/2011 at 5:11pm
Location: None Entered
Outfit: Bell tent & lavvu & Coleman Avior X2
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No, you do not need a leisure battery. Small lightweight NiMH rechargeable battery packs are all you need for LED lights. You can get plenty of charge into the NiMH packs even during an overcast day, if you need to, and that'll provide plenty to power LED lights all night. In practice though, like I said a few posts ago, I've found that taking 12V 3700mAH NiMH packs, already charged at home, one pack will power my set of quite bright LED lights all night for at least 4 nights in a row. Even when I got home the voltage of the pack I used had only dropped to 10V or so.
The 20W solar panel I have can quite happily be used to charge the 3700mAH packs without any charge controller. They reach full charge after about 4 hours on an overcast day. However, good 20W panels are expensive. The one I have is a rollable one, which typically sells for over £200, and I was just lucky to get hold of it for £100. If all I wanted to run was some LED tent lights then I wouldn't bother spending that sort of money - I'd just use the rechargeable battery packs and charge them from the car if necessary.
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