Un-used solar panel on Camper Through winter- Can I use it for something??

[barnartist]

Anyone have ideas on how I can take advantage of a panel thats on my camper through the winter months?
Its about A 24 X 42" panel. Not sure the watt. Turing camping season, It charges 2 batteries, and I have a 3000 watt power inverter.
The batteries are Unhooked for the winter, and I think they need replaced, because when charged up fully, I could only run light powered stuff only for 20 min or do.
Sound like bad batteries?

 

[Gooserider]

Anyone have ideas on how I can take advantage of a panel thats on my camper through the winter months?
Its about A 24 X 42" panel. Not sure the watt. Turing camping season, It charges 2 batteries, and I have a 3000 watt power inverter.
The batteries are Unhooked for the winter, and I think they need replaced, because when charged up fully, I could only run light powered stuff only for 20 min or do.
Sound like bad batteries?

The descriptions a bit vague, but it does sound like the batteries are tired... The only thing I could think of to do with it is to try and feed it back into your house electrics, but I suspect that it would need some interesting circuitry to do that safely, and without cooking things - I suspect your panel is only good for 1-200 watts at best, how long did it take to charge your batteries when they were new, and how long could you run on them? While it might take a nibble out of your electric bill, I doubt that it would be a very big one, not sure it would be worth it.

Gooserider

 

[barnartist]

Thanks Goose. I have since replaced the batteries. I haven't given them a good test yet though. They seem to charge up very quickly in good sunny conditions. Im not sure the wattage of the panel, it is about a 20"x40" panel.
This part of Ohio sees too many cloudy days I think to take advantage of it, especially this time of year. I was just curios if anyone smarter than me had come up with something fun to try.

 

[leaddog]

hook up an inverter and use it for a backup to run the furnace incase of power outage.
leaddog

 

[barnartist]

Its inverted and ready!