All cars, even if they’re not the new shinier hybrid models, are reliant on a battery to get their starter motor going, and spark the main internal combustion engine into life. Simply put, if you’ve got no charge left, your car (or your bike) won’t start. A solar trickle battery charger can be used to prevent this problem from occurring.
Here’s the root of the problem; rechargeable batteries, especially nickel-cadmium batteries, are often susceptible to losing charge when left unused for a long period of time. Most motor vehicles have a facility that re-charges the battery whilst the engine is running, but it’s sometimes unavoidable that a car has to be left unused for an extended period of time, for example when parked at an airport, or just in a period of time when you don’t need it. If you don’t do anything, then, you can return from this extended absence to find that your vehicle’s battery has lost charge entirely.
This can be very inconvenient, as anyone who’s been unable to get their car started in the morning, will will tell you! Often it is at exactly the wrong time that this happens. I don’t know about you but when I’m coming back from holiday and retrieving my car at the airport for example, I really don’t want to have to deal with a flat battery!
A trickle charger is a simple, low-cost solution to this problem. It’s simply a device designed to slowly charge a battery at a rate comparable to the rate of discharge. The energy demands for this device are fairly low- in fact, it can be better if they aren’t overcharging as this can lead to some reduction of battery capacity. It’s also recommended that a trickle charger be turned off at regular intervals. This can be achieved by upgrading it to a float charger, which is simply a trickle charger with a trip switch which cuts off the charge when the battery is full. It does this by sensing variations in voltage output, switching on the charger when it dips below a certain
This periodic disconnection can also be achieved in a more simple fashion by a solar trickle battery charger, as a solar cell will obviously stop generating power when there is no sunlight hitting the photovoltaic cells. Thus, what can be seen as a design fault can actually be seen as a useful property of the device.
This is in keeping with environmental principles- often the simplest solution is the most elegant, and the most efficient one. It also helps with fuel efficiency- a solar trickle battery charger will use energy it’s getting from the sun for free, as opposed to the standard method of charging, which uses your gas. I think it’s common sense that anything which can improve the fuel efficiency of a car is a good idea!
