is a 25w panel enough?

I have to assume that it is supposed to be 2.5W, not 2.5V.
On that basis, with a battery good for a nominal 120 watt hours to full discharge, you should have ~48 hours of pure standby. With powering up and back down, that might be consistent with a 28 hour run time to the point where the camera cut off because of low battery voltage. Note that this is not good for the battery!

Math: Assume average power consumption, including shooting and resting in standby of 5 watts (consistent with what you report, but seeming to be on the high side since the standard battery only holds about 5 watt hours.So 5 watts time 24 hours gives us 120 watt hours.
Your 20w panel will produce at best 15w during full sun because of losses driving the battery (incompatible voltages).
You will get at best 4-5 sun hours per day in the summer. That makes 75 watt hours per day in.
Net result is 45 watt hours per day decline in battery charge. That leaves you able to run for a little less than three days.

Bottom line: larger battery, with or without solar panels or a larger panel, maybe 50W nominal. At that point you should also use a charge controller to keep from overcharging the battery.

It has to be 2.5 watts standby. 2.5 volts makes no sense. So it uses roughly 60 watt hours per day.

You got me confused with a 12 volt 10,000 mah battery. Is that correct? Normally once the battery size it would be called 10 AH.

You say the battery is lead, but can you be more specific lead what? There is Flooded Lead Acid, AGM, and Gel. Makes a difference. If it is a Gel battery a 25 watt panel might damage the battery with a C/9 charge current. With that said yes a 25 watt panel with a charge controller is about the right size to generate 60 watt hours per day assuming you can put it in full sun oriented and tilted to the correct angles.

So give us some more battery info like make and model number.

Thanks guys.

First, battery: is is 10ah (listed as milliamps on the battery ), lead sealed ( sla ), ytx12-bs. Definitely not a deep cycle but thought it would work. Certainly don't want to ruin the battery though.

The camera draw is UP TO 2.5w ( not volts ). It was connected with alligator clamps to the battery , connected to cigarette lighter adaptor, and Camera is charged via USB. On its own battery, for timelapse, it would run 2.5-3hrs

I do have a charge controller. If I have to step up the battery. ..how big. I am mounting the camera pretty high up in either a tree or telephone pole to get the right pov. And really want to keep with the lightest battery possible.

You really do not need more than a 10 watt panel, smal charge controller, and a 5 to 10 AH AGM battery.

Thanks. So the 20w panel with controller and 10 a battery should be sufficient? I was able to get the panel and controller fairly cheap (for Canada; ).

Will the battery I have be damaged if I use it in this case? It is for my atv and hope to use it again when this is all done! What is an amg battery?

Cheers

AGM stands for Absorbed Glass Mat. It is a kind of sealed battery (Valve Regulated Lead Acid or VRLA) which has a small amount of electrolyte absorbed into a fiberglass mat separator between the electrodes. It can be used in any position without leaking and can handle high currents for its size because of the low internal resistance of its design.
Often used for power chairs, motorcycles and ATVs which are expected to end up upside down occasionally.
As long as you make sure that it gets fully recharged (at a proper rate) as soon after use as possible, what you are describing should not hurt it.

Yes but be clear on what AGM BATTERY means and not confused with Gel which is another type of sealed lead acid battery. AGM's can take a lot of abuse, and Gel's are very sensitive. With a 25 watt panel on a 10 amp gel is recipe for premature failure and I am not talking about your sex life.

Please leave my sex life out of this

Don't use that SLI battery. That is a flooded YUASA FLA battery that is sealed after either you or the dealer puts in the electrolyte and seals it. It is NOT agm. It is also a poor choice for your application, since it is intended to be a starter battery. They are frequently improperly charged by dealers btw, as the first charge procedure is extremely important. Many blow this formation charge to get it out the door. Just in case you wanted to know.

So yes, a small 10ah AGM like a Powersonic, UPG, B&B etc, along with your 25 watt panel, and a decent little controller like a Morningstar 4.5A Sunguard would be fine.

A generic agm can handle 0.25 to 0.3C current, so that would be about 10 * 0.3 = 3A max. Your 25 watt panel is only capable of producing 1.38A absolute best case, so you'll be fine.

Just avoid using that Yuasa starting battery if you ever hope to actually have it start your atv again. The normal maximum charge limit for an FLA battery is C/8. Guess what - Yuasa lists 1.2A max, which for 10 / 8 = 1.25. Bingo. Confirmation that it is flooded, yet sealed.

Soooo ... if you were limiting yourself to a 25w panel because of this spec for the Yuasa, you can actually go a bit higher for the 10ah AGM. Personally I'd throw a 50w panel (about 2.7A current best case) at a Powersonic, along with the Morningstar CC to get the charge completed as quick as possible.

Thanks for all the info Guys! I decieded to go with a deep cycle 35ah battery for various reasons. Mainly what I had from what you all told me was just not a good idea. The setup has been up and running since Friday and seems to be holding on fine. Attached some pics. Again, thanks a bunch.
Cheers


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