two chargers to one battery

I have aremote shed that has a 25w,12v bulb,hooked to a large 12v automotive battery. We charge it every month from an idling pickup. Harbor freight has 12v,1.5 watt battery charge maintainers. Could I hook TWO up to this 12v battery to keep it charged? the light is one about two hours a day and what we are doing now is mickey mouse but works. the chargers are $15 each and I'd like to save the gas. Thoughts???????
 
(quoted from post at 17:03:46 04/03/15) I have aremote shed that has a 25w,12v bulb,hooked to a large 12v automotive battery. We charge it every month from an idling pickup. Harbor freight has 12v,1.5 watt battery charge maintainers. Could I hook TWO up to this 12v battery to keep it charged? the light is one about two hours a day and what we are doing now is mickey mouse but works. the chargers are $15 each and I'd like to save the gas. Thoughts???????
aintainers are regulated to a specific voltage and any two will not likely be exactly the same, so one will carry the load & the other will just sit idle.
 
Hello carl reitnauer,

If you change the bulb with a CFL, Compact fluorescent bulb, You could save a lot of energy. Also a solar panel to charge the battery would make it self sufficient.

Guido.
 
Please read the post AGAIN. we charge it with a pickup TRUCK.The solar panel from HF is a maintainer.Appreciate your interest...will get CFL's
 
Carl I will be able to answer that in a year . I have a similar set up, an outbuliding too far for electric and only need light for short time. I have one of these 1.5 watt maintainers charging a 12 volt battery. I have a 750 watt inverter (12DC to 120 AC) feeding 3 keyless light fixtures. All with LED lamps. Lights up for what we need.
If you don't think the 1.5 will be enough look for a larger solar panel instead of 2.

joe
 
I've never seen CFL in 12v, I use 5 watt 12v LEDs in my cabin, easy to find and cheap too...I think I paid $ 4.00 each on ebay. The 5 watt bulb is the same as a 50 watt 120v incandescent and can be found with the standard bases.
Dan
 

dual solar chargers are better than one. Both will charge some in bright light, so yes, it should work.
 
Had the same situation and bought one of those $10.00 strip of LEDs on ebay, about 16 foot long, ran it down the underside of a rafter attaching it with the adhesive back, produces an amazing amount of light. My power source is easier as tractors sit in part of the shed, alligator clips and a cheap extension cord for cabeling, cut in a household switch in a nailed on box for convenience. The tractor has been the power source for about 20 days at the longest without being started and the battery had no problem spinning over the motor. Would think one of the solar maintainers would keep a battery hot with the low demand of LED.
 
Your original post said nothing about using solar-powered maintainers.

Assuming you're talking about the device at the link below, I don't think it will be a problem to parallel two of them. But you might be happier in the long run if you installed a larger cell.
Solar battery maintainer
 
I have a small building/cabin in the woods with a 5 watt solar panel, 12 volt car battery and a 12 volt CFL for lighting. The light is only used when I am back there at night which is not often. The panel is only a panel, it does not have a controller as in the latest solar maintainers - the battery is going on it's tenth year now.

LEDs are readily available today and I would replace the 25 watt incandescent with a 5 watt LED as has been posted here by others. The 2 hours use per day would equal 10 watt/hours consumption, instead of the current 50 watt/hours. If you use a solar panel or charger to maintain the battery it will not charge at night or on very cloudy days. If one assumes charging a time of 5 hours (average sunlight of 5 hours) per day the panel needs to output at least 2 watts to keep up with the daily consumption. However, this does not leave an excess for charging. A 5 watt panel should do it and would not need to be a maintainer charger. If you go with higher wattage panels then you should consider a charge controller, i.e. a maintainer charger.
 
(quoted from post at 16:05:33 04/03/15) Please read the post AGAIN. we charge it with a pickup TRUCK.The solar panel from HF is a maintainer.Appreciate your interest...will get CFL's

If you had the solar charger you would not need the TRUCK!!!
 
Assuming the intent of the question is will 2 chargers cohabitate on one load? Depends on the output circuitry. If "steering diodes" are not incorporated in the output, if one output is lower than the other which WILL happen if they are not "phase locked" (phase of pulses from chargers being at exactly the same point in the half cycle simultaneously) and absolutely equal in peak amplitude, the lower voltage charger looks like a battery below full charge to the higher output charger and will absorb some of the power intended for the battery. In some cases it may cause overheating and failure of some of the internal components of the slave charger. Series connections are one thing. Parallel is something else.

Mark
 

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