I have had a few people PM me asking how I go about charging my batteries in an emergency. I decided to post a thread with pictures to show others how I do it. I have used this system and I know it works. These are the items that I bought to keep my lights running when and if the grid goes down. This would work even in a long term power outage. This system works with either NiMh rechargeable or lithium ion batteries.
It is important to keep in mind that it is better when charging batteries for your flashlights when using DC current as your source that you charge DC straight to DC. In other words, it's not as efficient nor does it work as well to go from DC currant through an inverter into an AC charger and then charge your DC batteries. AC inverters sometimes don't do well this way. There is an exception to this inverter method. That is to use a sine inverter. This has something to do with the shape of the energy wave. If you have a sine inverter and connect it straight to your DC battery and then plug your AC powered charger into the sine inverter you will be fine. However, it doesn't have to be that way. If you go DC to DC you can do so without an inverter. This is how I do it.
You will need some sort of a solar panel. This is one of the panels that I have and I bought it for $65 at Harbor Freight on sale.
Notice all the attachments that come with this solar panel. You will use the male, female and the alligator clip attachment the most.
Next you will need a 12volt storage battery. You can use any 12volt car battery that you have by using this device. This is a good device to have on hand and only costs $6 at Harbor Freight.
I bought this 12volt battery to use as my DC storage container. It has advantages of having a built in AC inverter if I every want to run small appliances for a short time. It will also jump start my car battery, blow up a flat tire and it has a built in led light for emergencies. It is easier to carry than a car battery and it comes with adapters to recharge this battery from your AC wall outlet or from your DC car cigarette lighter although today we well be only talking about solar charging this battery. $99 at Walmart and has sockets to plug in a DC car adaptor.
Next you will need a charger for your NiMh and/or your lithium ion batteries. You may already have chargers that work. Just make sure your chargers have a DC adapter for charging your batteries in the car. My favorite for AA or AAA NiMh batteries is my Maha C9000 but there are others. I use this one for when I want to charge 8 AA batteries all at once for my Fenix TK41. Notice it comes with a car adapter and costs $28 at Battery Junction.
The nice thing about using a good smart charger is that you can plug your charger into the 12volt battery and it will shut itself off when the batteries are charged.
You will find that you can recharge several sets of batteries on one charge of your 12volt battery depending on the capacity of your 12volt battery.
What I like about this system is that I can keep my 12volt battery charged up when there is good sunlight and I can recharge my flashlight batteries night, day or when there isn't a lot of sunlight available.
You can buy a charge controller to hook to your 12volt battery if you want. This will allow you to leave your 12volt attached to your solar charger all the time without having to worry about over charging your 12volt battery. This is one from Harbor Freight. I don't use a charge controller right now because I monitor the 12volt battery and unplug it from the solar panel when it's done charging. I may buy one in the future because I may want to charge my 12volt with a larger solar panel.
I have been researching some different solar panels from a company called Solar Film. They look very good and I will be buying a few of these in the future. They are much lighter in weight and can be rolled up or folded. Some come with a little battery holder that holds 2 or sometimes 4 AA NiMh batteries. You only need to place the batteries in the battery holder and place the panel in the sun to charge up your NiMh batteries.
There you go. I hope this helps. I'm not an expert at this by any means but this system is working well for me. If you have any questions, feel free to PM me.
