Solar charging nest box camera & battery

[Mike S]

Hi

Apologies if this is dealt with elsewhere, but I haven't seen anything.

I'm fitting a new bird nesting box which contains a wireless camera. It will be attached to a battery which will in turn be attached to a solar panel. I'm hoping to avoid the need to constantly bring the battery in to recharge it. It's too far away from my house to cable in.

The camera will draw about 3W of power I think. The battery is lead acid, 6V 12Ah. The solar panel is a 10W 12V Solar Module with 3A Charge Controller.

I have two questions:
1. Is this safe? I've confused myself by reading about low-current electric shocks killing people!!!
2. Would it be better to attach a Li ion battery instead of lead acid, again with the charge controller?

Does anyone have a better idea for a solution?

Thanks
Mike

 

[Mike S]

Battery: Link to Amazon
Solar Panel: Link to Amazon
Nest box cam: Link

 

[Lucien Nunes]

You have referred to and linked to a 6V battery but the camera requires 12V.

If the camera consumes 3W continuously, the panel probably won't keep the battery charged. 10W is likely to be an optimistic output on a bright day. If it only achieves say half that for 12 hours a day, it will output 2.5W, which after battery charge/discharge losses might give you 2W usable power on average over a 24 hour period. A larger panel might be needed.

You can't really get a shock from 12V so it's.pretty safe, but do put a fuse e.g 5A in the battery lead as a short-circuit can burn out the wiring.

 

[Mike S]

You have referred to and linked to a 6V battery but the camera requires 12V.

If the camera consumes 3W continuously, the panel probably won't keep the battery charged. 10W is likely to be an optimistic output on a bright day. If it only achieves say half that for 12 hours a day, it will output 2.5W, which after battery charge/discharge losses might give you 2W usable power on average over a 24 hour period. A larger panel might be needed.

You can't really get a shock from 12V so it's.pretty safe, but do put a fuse e.g 5A in the battery lead as a short-circuit can burn out the wiring.

Thanks for your advice. You're right, will swap for a 12V battery. Would it be ok to use this setup to charge a 12V Li ion battery?

I take your point on likely yield from the panel, but I guess will still last longer than nothing.

 

[Shoei]

Thanks for your advice. You're right, will swap for a 12V battery. Would it be ok to use this setup to charge a 12V Li ion battery?

I take your point on likely yield from the panel, but I guess will still last longer than nothing.

There's plenty of kit around for small-scale solar battery power, one to bear in mind is Li batteries don't charge below 0 degrees C but the lead-acid will charge down to -20. Presumably a nest box away from mains power will need to work at low temperatures.