Garage with no electricity

[deltron]

Hi all,I have just started renting a garage 2 minutes walk from my home but it has no electricity and I'm looking for an easy way to trickle charge my bike and maybe some power for light/radio if poss.

I have seen some solar powered trickle chargers that have long leads that I could stick on the garage roof but no idea how good they are,seem to go for around £15. I have seen some booster packs for jump starting cars and some of them have a rechargable power pack,could I use that to charge it? or any other ideas? thanks in advance for any advice. btw atm it's for an nsr 125 but will be getting another larger bike soon .

[chris-red]

Get a solar panel from maplins there wire it to the bike.
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[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

A petrol generator with built in inverter for 240v devices.

A 12v car battery will run led lighting and a radio for weeks.

Don't know enough about solar panels. A friend uses one on the roof of his boat to top up his leisure batteries. It's a new type that isn't so dependant on placement...Expensive.

Hang around..There are some creative folk on BCF who can help you.

BTW. You can get battery operated PIR Security Alarms.
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[Teflon-Mike]

The £10 / £15 Maplin's solar panel's.... well, had one plugged into the caravan battery to keep it topped up, when not in use....
Battery still went flat..... so either not enough light, or not enough charge to outcharge the natural 'loss' of a 60Ah leisure battery.
Might be a little more helpful on a 9Ah bike battery... but I doubt it!

Personally? Remove battery from bike when left for longer periods, take home stick on trickle charge on a window sill. Problem sorted PLUS additional anti-theft precaution!

If battery goes flat over shorter periods.... like over night or a weekend.... you need a new battery NOT a battery charger!
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[stutterin' sam]

https://i749.photobucket.com/albums/xx132/wwmcintyre/photo40.jpg
My ride lies out all winter, connected to this from maplins £10.
Won't charge from flat but maintains fully charged battery.
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It is said that if you line up all the cars in the world end to end, some idiot on a sports bike would be stupid enough to try and pass them.

[BigGeeking]

[Nexus Icon]

Scats and, I assume, similar 'countryside stores' do a solar panel which will keep a leisure battery charged to run electric fencing indefinitely. Unfortunately I have no idea of the price, I just happened to be reading the guff on the box at Scats today.
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[stutterin' sam]

[DrDonnyBrago]

Remove battery, bring home = Free bike charging and free immobiliser.

[Blue_SV650S]

As others have said, the simplest and quite possibly the 'best' solution (without massive investment) is to remove battery and keep it charged at home.

If you can't drill the garage, I think you will struggle to get the wires in without them getting damaged over time by door opening/closing on them.

Also, there is a chance the solar panel will flip over/off in high winds.
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[bikersupermot...]

the generator idea is ok ... but it ll supply more electricity than you ll need to run a battery charger, a light and a radio ... and burn almost the same amount of fuel as it would running a full load.

i bought one of these :-

https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200609348406&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

it charges a car battery up from flat ... and keeps it charged - but youve got to also buy a regulator - otherwise it can ( in bright sunshine) provide enough power that will damage/overcharge your battery!.

if you can, buy something like this and build a wood frame for it so it can be angled toward the sun. run the wires from the panel to the regulator and to a 12v car battery. the battery can power your light and radio, and a separate lead to your bike battery and keep that topped up too!. and no need to buy fuel!.


the solar chargers that you see for £10 - £15 have a tiny tiny output and just about enough to keep a healthy battery topped up and stop it from discharging ... but thats about all they can do - they are the "old technology" solar panel - like in calculators ... not the polycrystalline hi-output type which can provide useful amount of electricity in varying sunlight conditions. hence they so cheap.
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tinybikes

[beast rider]

[cagiva gezzer]

The maplin ones are £9.99 at the moment and even at 9pm tonight it's taking my 50AH car batter up from 12.5 to 12.7Vs
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[deltron]

Thanks for the info, I think I'll give one of the solar panels a try seeing as they are only a tenner and the garage is in a sunny position,although the newer solar panel would be better it's quite pricey so I'll try the cheaper one first. I've found a small battery powered ipod speaker dock so will maybe try a small 12v car battery for some lighting.

How are the solar panels in winter and on cloudy days? are they waterproof?

[stutterin' sam]