REcommendation for solar trickle charger for leisure battery (electric fencing)

[jnb]

As above, has anyone set up solar trickle charging for their leisure batteries to save continually having to take it home to charge? Recommendations for what to buy please
Also - can anyone explain why using your old car battery to power the fence will never be as good as a leisure battery - is it because car batteries are designed not to go flat? Thank you

 

[hellfire]

My bottom part of the farm is totally on solar. Car batteries are not deep cycle and not designed to be drained so don’t last as long, don’t hold charge as long and give up pretty quickly. Deep cycle leisure batteries are designed to be discharged and charged regularly.
I can honestly really rate my Victron mppt charger. They are fantastic all the ones I’ve used over many years it’s been far better. Constantly topping my bank of batteries up. If you have a bank of batteries as I do you’ll need a larger one. Depends on how much power output you want. I have quite a good off grid set up as keep the horses down the bottom part along with the poultry and was more cost effective setting up solar than running mains. Plus no monthly cost. I run a lead out cable directly from one of my outlets to my electric fences too.

 

[hellfire]

Even have a app with this one to tell me what I’m drawing. This is real time and it’s pitch black hence I’m drawing 0w

 

[jnb]

We have no mains hence needing / wanting trickle charge (I need to persuade them that leisure batteries are the way forward, that is what I have always used but the car battery in use is constantly draining)

 

[tda]

I bought one from Halfords for mine, about £28, but my battery (car) is on its wayout so will replace with leisure

 

[honetpot]

I had a stand alone battery fence this year. I had one of the original Rutland solar panels, so it must be about 20yrs old. The are heavy and clunky, made of glass that breaks and solar technology has improved so much I bought a thin flexible one off ebay,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10W-18V-...742416?hash=item4b88a01f90:g:M9AAAOSw9-Jf1CdN
This kept the battery charged from June to September,with no need to recharge, on a long fence.As the solar bit is sandwiched in plastic, I have found it a lighter, and but the do get moved by the wind, I used to attach to the fence.

Battery. If you have an old car battery that not a dud give it a go, I used them because leisure batteries tend to be large and heavy, I have two, and car batteries are smaller, and the trickle charge from the panel should keep them going longer. I treated myself to a small specialist agricultural battery,
AgriBatt ELB40 Heavy Duty Electric Fence Battery 12V 27Ah c100, for about £40, online delivered, which is small enough to fit in a shopping bag to carry it.
There is not a lot of sun ATM, so I would buy a bigger panel, there are so many to chose from now,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30W-18V-...harger-/203130286599?var=&hash=item2f4b823207

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[Regandal]

I’ve got one of these,
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/10w-Sola...-/164090356486?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292
I bought a wheeled shopping trolley and put a leisure battery in the bag part, cable tied the panel to the extended handle. Made some holes in the bottom of the bag for ventilation.

Sheer luxury, not having to charge the battery all summer, and I can attest to the whack it delivers.

 

[EJJ999]

Perhaps a stupid question ! The above solar trickle chargers. How do you attach to the battery. I can see the clips but the terminals have clips on already to attach to the energiser. So how does this work?

 

[Regandal]

Perhaps a stupid question ! The above solar trickle chargers. How do you attach to the battery. I can see the clips but the terminals have clips on already to attach to the energiser. So how does this work?

I think leisure batteries have 4 posts, one large and one small on each side. Clips from panel go on the small posts. If there’s only 2 big posts, as on a car battery, I’ve clipped the energiser on first, horizontal, and the smaller panel clip onto the top. So both on the one post if you follow.

 

[The Xmas Furry]

Perhaps a stupid question ! The above solar trickle chargers. How do you attach to the battery. I can see the clips but the terminals have clips on already to attach to the energiser. So how does this work?

The decent leisure batteries have 2 posts, same as std car and truck batteries.
I clip on battery leads, then over clip with solar clip leads. I then ensure the clips are under on one side and over on the other on each post, so each clip has half touching the post and the other half pushing against the other clip (if you get what I mean?). Works for me.