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Questions…
Solar panel charge rechargeable battery?
I’ve been getting really into the whole going green aspect lately and am wondering a simple question, if I hook up a solar panel positive to positive, negative to negative with an AA rechargeable battery, will it charge it? If not what more would I have to add to make it work?
Answers…
Answer by billrussell42
You need to look at voltages and currents to be sure you are not overcharging the battery. You may need a diode between to prevent the battery from discharging through the solar cell when there is no sun. You may need a resistor to limit the current, depending on the voltage and current rating on the solar cell. And you have to monitor the state of charge on the battery to avoid overcharging.
It’s more complicated than you think. if you email me the specs on the cells, I may be able to help.
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It could work but I would not do it like that. Indeed to charge an AA battery you need to follow specific loading operations dependent of of the battery technology (no you don’t charge a Lithium Ion battery like a Nickel Cadmium battery) so the best solution would be to use solar panels to power a specific battery charger electronic circuit.
Maybe Yes BUT Generally No.
It would be better for you to put it through a charging circuit to charge your battery than to do it directly. Here are several considerations:
1. You want to control the amount of current that you are charging your AA rechargeable battery with.
2. You need to take care of the situation when your Solar panel is not giving you the voltage or current you need (e.g. not sufficient sunlight is shining on it at some periods). If you don’t do this, the voltage of your battery may be greater than the solar panel. Your battery will start to drain off. You can prevent this with a simple rectifier diode.
3. If your solar panel does not have high enough a voltage, then you need a circuitry to pump up the voltage over time so that it reaches a point that it can dump it to the battery. There are simple circuits that can do this.
You can search solar cell charging circuit to see the circuit diagrams:
http://www.google.com.sg/images?hl=en&q=solar+cell+charging+circuit&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=univ&ei=11FPTOG5MIWErAfv-4zcDQ&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CDAQsAQwAw
Very simply, yes.
But a rechargeable AA cell needs about 1.4 – 1.6 volts to charge it, and commercial solar panels produce different voltages.
If you put the solar panel you have in the sun, you can measure the voltage with a volt meter to see if it is in the right range. If it is, and the panel is not very large, you should not have to worry too much about overcharging the battery. If the solar panel is much higher than 1.6, you may be able to charge several AA cells in series. If you had, say, 6 volts, you could charge 4 AA batteries in series.
But as another respondent mentioned, putting a diode in the circuit is pretty important, since otherwise the battery will drain into the solar panel when there is not enough light.