Quote:
Originally Posted by Natalya
Also, I do have like 18V worth of solar cells, not sure how many amps, but like what should I power with them? 12v trickle charge?
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One nice thing about solar cells is their max current .. and if you are going into a battery that is trickle charge happy .. like PbA or NiMH .. than all you have to do is stay in that trickle charge range .. at most have a diode in for night-time .. you only have to worry about charge controllers and such once you get beyond the trickle charge rates.
You probably won't see much in way of MPG measurable gains .. but if the sun will shine on it anyway .. and if you already have them anyway .. might as well put them to use
If you don't want to trickle charge a battery , some other options might be:
Targeted heating .. you could also run them through a wire and a power resistor to do some targeted heating location .. like inside the NiMH battery pack or such.
In the summer time you can use them to run an exhaust fan for a tiny bit of cooling.