Solar charging help for my scooter

jerainw

I am attending Burningman this year for the first time. I am taking my Razor e300s electric scooter due to not being able to walk very far because of a disability. I am wondering if/how to hook up solar chargers to the dual batteries for when I am not using it. Each battery is 12Volt. One charger on each battery or use two......lost and confused. Thanks for any help.

BB.

Re: Solar charging help for my scooter

Welcome to the forum Jerainw.

For these types of projects, we really need information about the battery being charged... Size (AH, Voltage), type (lead acid, sealed, AGM, GEL, etc.)... And it appears that the battery charger is a 1.0 amp @ 24 volt unit.

From looking at the owners manual (I think you have this one), it says it is a Sealed Lead Acid battery with 2x 12 volt * 7 AH battery bank.

And it appears that the battery charger is a 1.0 amp @ 24 volt unit.

So--if that is all correct (and if not a GEL battery), then it would appear that you need:

~20 watts of solar panels with Vmp~35-38 volts and a maximum of ~60 watts (~1.7 amps charging current)
~2 amp minimum 24 volt charge controller

2x 20 watt panels:

• Power Up Unbreakable 10 Watt Multicrystalline 12 volt Solar Module
• Solartech 10 Watt Multicrystalline Solar Module
• Solartech SPM020P-A 20 Watt Multicrystalline Solar Module
• Power Up Unbreakable 30 Watt Multicrystalline 12 volt Solar Module

1x 24 volt charger (any of these should work, the Steca is the cheapest):

• SunSaver 20 Amp 12 or 24 Volt Solar Charge Controller With LVD
• Schneider Electric C35 Solar Charge Controller
• Steca Solsum 6.6 Amp Solar Charge Control 12/24 Volt With LVD

You will have to read the manuals for the charge controllers... You should probably have a power switch on the solar panel input side the charge controller. Turn the panels off when connecting/disconnecting the charge controller and changing battery bank(s).

Depending on how much you drive in a day--You may be perfectly happy with the pair of 10 watt panels. The larger panels (pair of 20 or 30 watt panels in series) will charge faster--But these are relatively small batteries and high charging currents may not be too good for them. You will want the battery chargers to be set/adjusted for Sealed batteries with a charging voltage in the range of ~28.4 to 28.8 volts.

If these are GEL batteries, you probably should stick with the 10 or 20 watt panels (GELs do not like high charging currents in general).

If you can find the specifications for your batteries--They should list charging voltages/currents and you can make battery decisions.

Good Luck,
-Bill