On Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:21:53 GMT, Jere Lull wrote:

On 2008-04-12 11:56:41 -0400, (Richard
Casady) said:

over the years. Btw, he could just leave the battery in the boat with
a $10 solar panel during the week.

You underestimate the size and cost of a useful size solar panel by a
large factor.

I was going to disagree with your post, but luckily re-read it.

IF electric could serve his purposes, a little 12w panel would normally
recharge 100 or so amps between weekends. That happens to be our setup
and it's worked like a charm for a few years. (Our 12w panel cost a bit
more than $10, though.)

Something I haven't pursued, though, is that I recall someone saying
that VWs are shipped with small solar cells to keep their batteries up,
and that those cells can be gotten for very cheap. A few of those might
be sufficient, and may cost in the $10 range.


Then, along comes the three day weekend and the guy wants to use the
boat three days in a row......

Or to put it another way, I know a lot of people who's only source of
power is an internal combustion engine but I don't know anyone who's
only source of power is a solar panel.


Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct email address for reply)