Solar Battery Project?

Question

Anyone know a good website or book where i can learn to do the following project?

I want to buy a battery (like car battery) and make it where it gets recharged with a solar panel and then have an attachment that makes it into a common outlet where i could plug anything into it (within reason of course) to charge my stuff or run very small appliances like a desk lamp. and i would like to have something that tells me how much of a charge is left and also somehow have it so it doesn't over charge.

Thank You :)

Answer 1

this is a loaded question

here's the short of it

eBay has a  solar 12 v battery charger

(care-full though make sure the one you buy will shut off

when the battery is charged.

then fuse the wire off the battery before making connections

to anything.

do not connect 12volt to any house type outlet

there are 12volt outlets just like a car for walls

then you can connect to a 12 volt bulb

but the lamp will need a new socket at the top

and the plug wire will have to be changed to an outlet

for the 12v socket in your wall

make sure to then fuse the lamp

don't attempt this is you don't know how

it can catch fire!!!

you have been told and I'm not responsible for what you do.

this is for information purpose but will work if installed by a pro.

Answer 2

Oddly enough most of the parts you're inquiring about can be purchased at an auto parts store, you just need to know how to configure them.  I did a similar project using a spare marine battery I had.

On a whim I once purchased three solar panels that were designed to trickle charge car batteries.  They had cigarette light type plugs and would charge a car's battery when it's parked in the sunlight.  One caveat that I learned the hard way was that they didn't have any type of internal regulation so if you leave it plugged in while driving it can be a fire hazard.

I also had a 12-volt powered inverter (200Watts) that I used to charge my cordless tool batteries on my way back and forth to jobs.  I experimented once with the solar panels, battery and inverter to see if they would work together -they didn't.  However, when I installed a relay in the circuit to shut off the solar panels when the inverter was on I found that it worked.

Ideally you'll have a system that will charge the batteries and operate the inverter at the same time but with cheap parts from Pep Boys and Autozone your options will be limited.  There are home-type systems that would allow full use of solar cells while the inverters are on but I think they would be too large for your project.