If you go with the car, what about a 150W power inverter that plugs into your cigarette lighter and converts output to a 3 pin plug for charging. Some come with USB points too.
We don't have EHU we just use this for the mobiles, electric toothbrush etc.
We got ours online from Rapid Electronics whilst ordering other things. Excellent - with low battery warning and trip.
Kev bought ours from Halfords a couple of years ago - it was on offer at about £38 I think (it was recommended by the guy at Discover as theirs were over £50 at the time) - not cheap but it seems to work pretty well.
To be perfectly frank, unless you spend a lot of money, they aren't very effective. You'll spend £50 for one that will provide a maximum of a 1 amp charge per hour, when the sun is shining and the panel is facing it. Letting your engine tick-over for half an hour, will put as much charge into the battery as a solar panel will in 3-4 days.
Yeah,as john says(..not that I'd want the bloke next to me to be firing his engine up all the time though )
Although we have a couple,one "briefcase" type and a small panel,to be honest I think they(the cheap smaller ones) are just a bit of "kidology"..
(I'm sure I read somewhere that under normal circumstances,the cheaper ones aren't even able to keep pace with normal battery "drainage")
If this is a real rather than a perceived need then maybe,instead of spending money on small solar panels..it may be worth looking at putting the money towards fitting a bigger or second leisure battery?....
(..We camp without hook up or solar panles, for long weekends and for a full week at Glastonbury festival without running the battery down....)
thanks everyone, I must admit I had thought that another battery would probably be more use, it's really so that we can watch the TV without fear of running too low.
Haven't done it myself as we just take games and books camping, but I bet someone may comment.
What about using a laptop to watch TV (obviously only if there is WIFI) or dvds on battery power (our battery lasts 2-3 hours - even get a spare) and then recharge the battery(ies) via a power inverter (or available mains power - some sites provide this) in between uses.
If you want to watch TVs etc - may be it is worth going down the EHU route though...
I do use a 50 watt solar panel & have never had it fail yet. Brought it off eBay for about a third of what you'd pay for one from camping stores etc. We've been away for a fortnight we sometimes watched the tv in the evenings it was always charging up a phone or a DS etc while we were away & it never ever run flat. We often go to places without EHU too but we did take a laptop with us last time we were away & found that was taking a lot out of the battery when in use so it wasn't used much. The weather was pretty horrendous at times too but just having the panel facing in the general direction of the sun during daylight was enough to keep the battery charged. I think nowadays you can buy a 100 watt panel for the same price I paid for the 50 watt one I brought 4 years ago.
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Topic: Solar trickle chargers
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