Can this effectively charge batteries in daylight but in a "cloudy" day? One time all batteries ran out, no electricity and hurricane out. Ideas?
838711
Sometimes you have to play around with inserting the batters, to make sure that they are making a good contact with the - & +. I have had no problem with mine, however it does take a good amount of time to charge, so you have to be ready to wait. Mine took 2 days, bottom line, you have to be patient. Hope this helps. Ron
838712
This thing never worked for me on a bright, sunny summer day, let alone on a cloudy day. Don't buy it.
838713
I have two of them and have tried them on 'cloudy days' and they don't charge very fast. It will take a day or two to get much charge at all.
838714
I have had luck recharging batteries when it was cloudy, but was summertime and I had more than 16 hours of charge time. I also use high quality batteries, but I don't know if that helps any.
702337
Im not 100% sure but when I put it on my room floor by accident it charged from the light. It also works on really cloudy days even when there is hardly any light at all. Also, it's a little bit bigger than it looks like in the pics and stuff so make sure you have a could way to carry it.
199932
This is a charge controller for a storage battery/(s). It's output range is between 12 & 24 volts +/- Direct Current. It is working, monitoring your storage batteries, even when the sun is not out, but cannot supply any current. I've never used the "bulb" connector, but my guess is that it is taking current from your storage batteries to supply the current at night, but you need a 12 volt DC bulb for that. If there's no sunlight, there's no power from the panels, and if your storage batteries are discharged, you'll have no current. Gotta have batteries in the dark.
2052710
It won't come on in daytime unless you cast a shadow over it. I am very satisfied with mine. No luck with battery units, so this is great- a bit of electric, but works as stated.
1452921
follow the directions. remove the strip (small pastic like) sticking out of battery holder if there is one there. If not open the battery holder and look inside to see a on switch. then you have to place in the garden , in sunlight for a full day. This charges the batteries. they come on automatically when it gets dark.
1926834
it works with visible and UV light, so it needs to be in the direct sun to give you currents close to specs. If it's cloudy, it will still work, but not give you much current. In a storage unit it will give you zero.
1597116
Well, since I live in Florida I cannot answer from my own experience, but the solar light has rechargeable batteries in it, so as with any battery, they don't work very well in sub-zero temps, if at all, unfortunately. Also, as the other person noted, the solar panel cannot recharge the batteries in the Winter in your area. Not enough sunlight hours. It does require a minimum of 4-6 hours direct sunlight on the panel.
375785
Yesterday I was using it to power a usb speaker and it continued to work when the sun went behind a clouds. That leads me to believe it continues producing energy even when it's cloudy. Though I'm sure the output is reduced.
1560081
I haven't tried it in full sunlight. I did try leaving it inside my car next to the windshield. Although this is not ideal, after 2 or 3 days, it did not charge much my 10,000 mah battery. It may be better for smaller battery capacities like your iPhone but not super efficient for large battery packs.
721808
This device doesn`t support the batterys.Your Charge controller & solar panels determon what charge is in your batterys. The amount of amps drawn from your battery to run this device is determoned by how much power your load is drawing from the inverter.I have 30 deep cycle marine batterys supplying power to my 2500 watt inverter & I run two 1000 watt electric heaters, my frig. and house lights when I have a good supply of sunlight charging my batterys at 14.3 volts from three 40 amp charge controllers.I have at times seen this inverter draw my batterys down on a very cloudy day to 9.6 volts and still put out 115 volts.Any lower battery voltage and the inverter will shut down, but will come back on automatically as soon as the battery voltage gets built back high enough to run the inverter.
2181666
You can just hook it up +&-. Or you can get a charge controller that will desulfinate the battery, not overcharge and not discharge at night. There is lots of 'em available... Me, I like the Battery Tender 021-1162 Solar Panel Charger Controller
1882772
I would imagine you will hit the limitations of the battery no matter how much sun it received the day before. I remember seeing my light work as late as 4 AM. You may need to go with a wired solution for anything better.
1389240
No...It has to be direct sunlight. Also, the solar charger takes a long time to recharge the battery. I basically just used it as a secondary battery and charged it from the wall socket the night before. I think the solar charger would only help if you had several days to charge it. I left it on my dash once for a week and it barely charged half way.
971648
I'm taking a big gamble and have boughten 2 of these 60 watt systems to power up a remote cabin in upstate new york.Mostly lighting and a 12 volt water pump.Very conservative use.Lights will only be on where I need them.My questions are:will a cloud covered winter sky still produce a trickle charge from these panels?We can go weeks without a sunny day.I also will have to keep the snow and ice off the panels.Should I set up two completely seperate systems or should I tie both together on one battery bank?Can I also hook a regular battery charger to the batteries in conjunction with the solar chargers? I'm taking a big gamble and have boughten 2 of these 60 watt systems to power up a remote cabin in upstate new york.Mostly lighting and a 12 volt water pump.Very conservative use.Lights will only be on where I need them.My questions are:will a cloud covered winter sky still produce a trickle charge from these panels?We can go weeks without a sunny day.I also will have to keep the snow and ice off the panels.Should I set up two completely seperate systems or should I tie both together on one battery bank?Can I also hook a regular battery charger to the batteries in conjunction with the solar... » Read More I'm taking a big gamble and have boughten 2 of these 60 watt systems to power up a remote cabin in upstate new york.Mostly lighting and a 12 volt water pump.Very conservative use.Lights will only be on where I need them.My questions are:will a cloud covered winter sky still produce a trickle charge from these panels?We can go weeks without a sunny day.I also will have to keep the snow and ice off the panels.Should I set up two completely seperate systems or should I tie both together on one battery bank?Can I also hook a regular battery charger to the batteries in conjunction with the solar chargers? « Show Less
634537
Agree with Todd & Kate. It is what it is, a "solar" panel depending totally on UV rays to generate a charge. The panel will not generate a charge at night nor on dark overcast days.
2138676
It will work on cloudy days but not nearly as fast.. Works better than some during cloudy days though!
779404
That is going to depend on how discharged the batteries get each night. To give you an idea of what to expect, I have a 1600 ah battery bank and 6 panels. They are able to fully charge the batteries each day as long as it is sunny. They produce around 30 amps for about 5 hours mid day in February. With 2 panels I would expect 10 amps. I am in northern Nevada, farther south you should get more sun/power.