Using a solar panel to charge a 6 V. electric childs car battery?

italo

I have a childs electric car, for the 4-6 year old. It runs on a 6V 4.5 Ah sealed lead acid battery. This car came from Spain and has only a 220V charging unit that cannot, of course, plug into a standard American outlet. When I got it the battery was at 5.4 V and the motor wouldn't run. I initially recharged it with my car charger that had a 6 volt setting. I disconnected it at 6.7 V and checked it on the motor and the motor ran fine, though not under the load of a child riding around. I removed it from the motor hookup and after 24 hours the battery dropped to 6.37V this morning and seems to be decreasing slowly (to 6.35 after two more hours).

Since my grandson comes every two weeks and will be using it only for at most 1-2 hours or less.

Instead of looking for any adaptor or adapting an American adaptor to the wiring, I would like to know if I can use a solar charger. It sits on the dashboard of a vehicle and plugs into the cigarette lighter outlet. It puts out 19 V. in full sun and the solar panel part is 3.5x11.5 inches.

The plan is to buy a cigarette lighter outlet, hook it to the wiring of the battery, and use the solar charger between his visits while the car sits in the patio.

1. Do I have to worry about the 19V output of the solar charger?
2. Do I have to worry about harming the battery if I just leave it plugged in during the two week interim (or more) when he is not visiting in order to keep it topped off?
3. Is there anything else I should know about this idea.

Thanks.


The European charger is 230V ~50Hz 18.4W and outputs to 6V 1000mA 6VA
Here is the link to the solar charger:

http://www.4lots.com/browseproducts/Battery-Saver-Plus-1.0-Watt.html
I also found in my computer box two power supplies for stuff long gone: one has an output of 6V 800mA and the other is 6V 200mA. Would either of these work? My question about the solar panel still stands with the new info in the link.

Answer
The battery is doing what good sealed lead acid batteries do; slow decline in voltage after being disconnected from the charger.. Battery sounds good.

There are several things you can do:

Use the 220v you have in your house wiring, just get the right plug adapter by asking at a GOOD hardware or electric store. I think things that are designed at 50 cycle work fine at 60 cycle.

BEST:Get a European to USA adapter rated at 25 watts or More.

Buy a second identical battery for the car, hook them in series and top off their charge using the solar charge on trickle after doing the bulk charge with the 6v charger.

Using the present 6v charger on a timer.

Buy a decent 6v smart SLA charger on-line or at Batteries Plus, which also might be a good resource for your situation.

Do not use the solar charger for two weeks without modification to the circuit, it could really shorten the lifetime of th battery depending on the solar's output.

What happened to the electric cars and why don't they make them anymore?

Searcher

I was a child in the 70s when the electric cars came about and it seems like you don't see them any more?

Does anyone know why, other than they would be 30 years old now?

Answer
Hopefully they will come back and be affordable in the near future as battery technology improves, but here is the run down on why they were only concepts or projects:

1 - Battery packs weigh 1000 pounds
2 - Batteries lose full capacity after only 2-3 years
3 - Even with 1000 pounds, range was either 40 miles at 80 mph, or 80 miles at 40 mph. Neither made anyone happy.
4 - "Filling up the tank" took 8-10 hours (recharging)
5 - Battery replacement cost every few years was hundreds of $$
6 - Car cost was twice that of a gas car
7 - Batteries took up the whole car's cargo space

However I am part of an EV club myself, and between lithium ion technology and ultra capacators, we should see an affordable one in about 10 years or so. Maybe sooner. The Tesla electric uses 6,000 lithium ion computer batteries and is already under a hundred thousand. $95,000.00 I think. $45,000 just for the replacement battery pack though. Give it time and it will come down.

In the meantime, get a diesel and run B100 biodiesel or get a used Hybrid. Hybrids fix all these problems because the battery pack (cost) can be very small, yet you still can go 300 miles without stopping.

Good luck, by asking this question, I can tell you are on the right direction to making a difference.

greencarcongress.com might interest you

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