Solar and battery help
Good Morning. I am hoping someone can provide a simple answer or 4 for me. I just read a post on the TC forum about flexible, light weight 100 watt solar panels and love the look of this, I have a Nor...
Forum Discussion
Must be one of those occasions when I (almost) agree with BFL.
Yes, TS45 is overkill unless there are plans to expand to at least 500W. Some 10A-15A Morningstar or Steka would do - or Xantrex PWM 35, they all cost about the same. I would not buy $15 gizmo when solar is the only source of power and therefore needs to be reliable.
I'm not sure about sulfating in AGM. What he is doing is a one week-long cycle 100 to 60, and only then charging it to 100 again. Kinda self-discharge, only faster. You can let AGM sit and self-discharge all year, it will drop to about 60% over that period without major consequences.
Though I would rather keep them charging every day, getting 11 AH a day shouldn't be difficult unless the weather pattern is 7 days of rain and then all sunny. In fact, with daily charging they would need less than 11 because some juice would've got directly to devices in daytime, so the battery would discharge by less than 11 AH a day.
Yes, TS45 is overkill unless there are plans to expand to at least 500W. Some 10A-15A Morningstar or Steka would do - or Xantrex PWM 35, they all cost about the same. I would not buy $15 gizmo when solar is the only source of power and therefore needs to be reliable.
I'm not sure about sulfating in AGM. What he is doing is a one week-long cycle 100 to 60, and only then charging it to 100 again. Kinda self-discharge, only faster. You can let AGM sit and self-discharge all year, it will drop to about 60% over that period without major consequences.
Though I would rather keep them charging every day, getting 11 AH a day shouldn't be difficult unless the weather pattern is 7 days of rain and then all sunny. In fact, with daily charging they would need less than 11 because some juice would've got directly to devices in daytime, so the battery would discharge by less than 11 AH a day.
