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Solar charging is nice, but what about mice?

FriendsofMario
FriendsofMario Member Posts: 28
edited November 2025 in Battery/Electrical & Solar
We're going to be putting the 400 to bed for the winter in an unheated shed with no electricity available. I'd like to connect our 100W Renogy panel to keep at least some charge on the battery. I'm assuming that I will need to connect my portable panel to the T@B's solar controller and then run the leads out through the door to the storage area. I'm concerned about doing this, however, because I don't want to leave an opening in the trailer through which rodents could enter. 
Those of you who have connected remote panels in this way, what if anything have you done to address this possibility?
2019 T@B 400 Boondock, “MacT@Bish”
2002 Sunline Solaris Lite 2363
2024 F-150 XLT SuperCrew 4x4
Mario, the porch cat
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Comments

  • pthomas745
    pthomas745 Administrator, Moderator Posts: 4,527
    A fully charged battery, with the battery switch and your inverter off, will hold a charge for months. You could check the battery occasionally (if it is convenient) and then connect the panels for the few hours of sun you would need to recharge the battery, and go from there.
    Does your portable panel have its own controller?  Does your 2019 have the "Solar port"?  I get confused about what models have the port or not.  
    If your Renogy panels has its own controller, it would be fairly easy to run some sort of solar connector from the battery distribution block to a more convenient spot to plug in your panel's solar controller.  There would be no Tab Yoga necessary to rewire the trailer's solar controller.
    2017 Outback
    Towed by 2014 Touareg TDi
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  • skibug
    skibug Member Posts: 11
    If your battery is lithium with no low temp. cut off and the temperature drops below freezing, be sure not to charge the battery. You can damage a lithium battery if you charge it when the temperature is below freezing. Many, but not all lithium batteries have a battery management system that will cut off charging in cold temp's 
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