Marco Leon wrote:
On Feb 1, 8:26 am, "BDS" wrote:
That might not work so well in an application like this. If he has
the 250 watt heater and runs it for 3 hours then he has removed 750
watt-hours of energy from the battery (plus change).

A couple of web sites quote a 170 W BP solar panel at around $850. In
full sun this would take about four and a half hours to recharge the
battery. A 115 watt panel would take about six and a half hours and
cost $650. Add another $200 for a charge controller, wiring, etc and
another $100-$200 for the battery.

There's a guy with a solar-power setup on the ramp but I've never been
able to run into him to pick his brain. A friend heard that he has his
thing patented so I might get little info other than a price...

I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.

The US patent system is totally broken, so it wouldn't surprise me if
such a thing was patented. If it is, get the patent number out of him,
then go look it up at Google or at the Patent and Trademark Office and
you should get a full description. If you like what you see, and the
guy isn't an attorney himself, build one of your own and don't worry
about it. He has to sue you to get anywhere, and it's pretty easy to
show prior art... look at the Bell Labs literature from the 1950s and
I'm sure you can find "hey, you could charge a battery with these
things" in no later than the third article ever written about them.

I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice.

I researched the solar powered thing briefly but stopped after the
numbers on the napkin hit 4-digits to the right of the dollar sign.

If you want to have a reasonable chance of being able to pre-heat the
next day, I'd believe it - see above.

Matt Roberds