solar panel to charge cordless power tools

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solar panel to charge cordless power tools

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Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 22 9:39 am Post subject: solar panel to charge cordless power tools

The fields here are based on medieval strip fields, so my land is long and thin, and thus far away from electrical points. I have no power in the barns, and so I rely heavily on cordless tools - not just jigsaw and drill, but also our lawn mower and strimmer - and I have just invested in a cordless pump to move collected rain water around.

I don't have solar panels on the roof and it feels a long way off and lots of ££s. Is it a realistic and worthwhile plan to arrange a portable solar panel, with some sort of energy bank to charge the batteries? It could be quite slow because I don't use these tools every day.

if it is viable, what would I need? can you point me at the right thing?

Last edited by Nicky cigreen on Thu Jul 28, 22 10:45 am; edited 1 time in total

tahir

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 45676
Location: Essex

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 22 10:27 am Post subject:
I've just bought one of these: https://bluettipower.co.uk/products/bluetti-eb55-portable-power-station Haven't really used it yet but could be charged indoors and used outside

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Thu Jul 28, 22 11:38 am Post subject:

small stuff is plausible, big stuff used every week not so much, big every day all day stuff you need big panels

look at the input for the appliance, treble it, that is about the panel output you will need.

every change of voltage and or current rate has losses, they add up in a compound way

i have had quite a bit of practice, my current kit will run a phone, gps, a pair of cb radios, a radio and a small torch as daily.
charge the camera is a day for the 2 battery power pack, a full battery bank is a few days but that would run a phone all day for a week or a moderate size lap top for a day

it depends on the weather, cold and sunny is sometimes too much, hot and overcast will be too little

power tools have a bit of a clue in the name

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15998

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 22 7:16 am Post subject:
We use solar power to keep a leisure battery topped up in the woods, but husband says that power pack that Tahir suggests is a good idea. You will need to match the solar panels to the power pack.

Nicky cigreen

Joined: 25 Jun 2007
Posts: 9887
Location: Devon, uk

Posted: Fri Jul 29, 22 7:55 am Post subject:
thanks, useful advice. the prices are high, buying a bank and a panel, even with today's electricity prices, I am not convinced it would pay for itself within its lifetime - otoh, some of the point of it would be for convenience/ backup rather than saving. I'll need to give it some thought.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91� N

Posted: Sat Oct 15, 22 7:52 pm Post subject:

tahir wrote:

I've just bought one of these:

https://bluettipower.co.uk/products/bluetti-eb55-portable-power-station

Haven't really used it yet but could be charged indoors and used outside

Though on the flip side that is about twice the cost of a leisure battery, 200W solar panel, controller and inverter.

I've just put together a system with 240W solar panel, 20A charge controller, 1.3 kWh leisure battery and 2kW inverter. Total cost is about £400. Downside is that obviosuly it's not portable (well I suppose I could lug the battery outside) but I can use it to charge battery powered tools which is one of the main uses. It runs the 12V lighting and charges batteries for my mitre saw, strimmer, hedge trimmers etc. It also provides back up power for the freezers when we have a power cut.

Next step is something a little bigger which could run some sustained high power items like heating for the studio.

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