Hi Susan,
Thanks for keeping me unambiguous....  :)  I will have to stand by the mfr.
warning label that says to unplug the panel before starting the car.  What I
was addressing was the question on whether the panel would drain the battery
when there was no sun.  Since the current only flows one way, the consensus
is that juice will flow to the battery when there's sun, but won't flow out
of the battery when there's no sun.  This makes sense, since the cars arrive
from Germany and noone is running around unplugging the panels each
night--they get removed during the pre-delivery inspection at each dealer.
tx,
bmc  :)
Ben McCafferty
ben@volkscafe.com

Volks Cafe
1823 Soquel Avenue
Santa Cruz, CA  95062
831-426-1244
http://www.volkscafe.com

> From: Susan <a451301@yahoo.com>
> Date: Fri, 3 Jan 2003 07:52:08 -0800 (PST)
> To: Ben McCafferty <ben@volkscafe.com>, WetWesties
> <wetwesties@yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [WetWesties] Solar panel wrap-up
>
>
>> As an aside, I did put an ohm-meter on a panel this morning, and the
>> responses regarding diodes seem to be dead on.  The resistance one direction
>> was about 19 MOhms, and the other direction was about -4 MOhms.  So I doubt
>> we'll be seeing any glowing solar panels in the campground at night.
>
>
> so in layman's terms is it ok to plug in while running the engine?  and if not
> would it matter if
> you were feeding an auzilary battery rather than the main???
> of course this question is asked after having mine plugged in while i drove
> for 2 weeks.  needless
> to say i didn't catch on fire but just in case it was the wrong thing to do
> i'd like to die aware
> of my mistakes!!
>
> =====
> Susan Dolvin
> 78 Riviera 'Patch'
> 66 Dormobile Westy 'Zapper'
> Westfalia Acres - Drain, Oregon
>
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