Simple battery question

Thread Starter

Ctenom

Joined Nov 1, 2010
59
Hi got another daft question. I have got a shed with a solar panel charging up a 200ah battery (12v) battery just lately i have been using a 12v heater in their as well trouble is with the heater on the power drains much quicker and i run out of light and heat. I have two 65ah bike batteries i would like to link up to to get more time could i put a resister between the positives so it would slow the charge\discharge of the battery's? i used a 12v 10w light bulb between the positives today but have disconnected it before the sun starts charging them tomorrow. Thank you for your time
 

R!f@@

Joined Apr 2, 2009
9,918
Connecting resistor won't help.

U need a better charging option or higher capacity batteries.
it seems ur load is too much for ur battery bank or ur battery aren't charging to it's max
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
Electric heaters are simple, but extremely inefficient. They work like a toaster, put enough current through a low resistance, the resistance heats up.

Solar power cannot keep up to an electric heater in a room the same size as a solar panel. (say, 100 sq ft)

--ETA: Unless the outside temp is what you are trying to get the inside temp to. Better off with LPG or Natural Gas heaters.
 

Thread Starter

Ctenom

Joined Nov 1, 2010
59
Thank you for your reply i only use them for a few hours every couple of weeks all the batterys get fully charged in that time i swap them when thay are full and swap them when thay drop to 12v/50% ish just wondered if ther was a way to leave them all connected all the time. swapping between the 3 is just the right amount of time i need.
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
You can try charging them in parallel, if you have a charge controller for each, then use them one at a time.

As long as there is sufficient time for all to be fully charged between uses, one day in sun isn't enough.
 

thatoneguy

Joined Feb 19, 2009
6,359
Actually resistance heaters are almost 100 percent efficient, tho a heat pump can do better ( like 400 % ).
I meant in relation to direct solar heating, as in the link above. The conversion from solar to electric and back to heat is inefficient. Sorry for making it a bit unclear.

In addition, household electric heat at "grid cost" doesn't match well for a similar price amount of natural gas or fuel oil.
 
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