Charging battery with solar panel, have questions

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Charging battery with solar panel, have questions

59poncho · Poncho Master!

let me ask my father in law tommorow, he actually worked for a company for a little while that made and tested there panels until they got all the bugs worked out thanks to him and then moved to the states! Also, how big are there panels?

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

This is 3 30 watt panels.

It says they max out at 2 amps each.

That would be great if you can ask him, thanks.

59poncho · Poncho Master!

no problem, i'm off work tommorow so i will give him a ring. hes actually a metrologist and at one time used to work for CSA and made sure your bar-b-cues and other things dident blow up on you! He had a couple really nice late 60's pontiacs for company cars at one time.Those were his first american cars(hes british) and then the first one he bought was a 69 barracuda. He really wishes he had those cars now!

SD 396 · Poncho Master!

Wired in parallel you will get 6 amps total. You made need to isolate the panels from each other with a diode on each of the positive wires.
Is there a reason you need so many amps?

-- Edited by SD 396 at 08:55, 2008-10-17

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

I'm sorry for my ignorance, but the way my drawing is, is that in series or parallel?

6 amps is pretty necessary because on a good sunny day the panels will only get a solid 5 hours of time.

BILTIT · Veteran Member

That is wired in parallel. Series would have one panel wired to another and that one wired to another with only two wires going to the controller.

Parallel will give you ~12V and 6Amps as how you have it drawn.

Parallel wiring keeps the same voltage as one panel, series will add all the voltages together of all the panels for an output ~36V.

You dont need to join the panel wires before the controller, they can all be tied in at the controller terminals, its no different than what you have.

-- Edited by BILTIT at 08:43, 2008-10-17

SD 396 · Poncho Master!

Sorry about that. I meant parallel.

You may still need to isolate the panels from each other.
Are you hooking this up to maintain a battery over the winter that already has a good charge?

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

This is for charging batteries at a cabin that is off the grid, so we use generator, solar and propane for the various appliances etc.

And thanks to both of you. My question is answered perfectly and the answer was what I was hoping for!

Canadian Poncho, offering tons of free car advice as well as pretty much anything else as well!!!!

59poncho · Poncho Master!

i talked to my father in law and he said the same thing the other guys said. When you hook it up and its not working right let me know and he can pick his brain for ya.

4SPEED427 · A Poncho Legend!

Thanks Trevor for the help and the offer too.

We already have one 30 watt that we have used, and that is all fine. I was just wondering about adding 2 more. We purchased them already (identical to the first one) and the instructions make no mention of using them together.