Solar Kit
Just received my kit. 2 100w panels with a 30a pwm controller. Hoping it will recharge my 2 GC2's. I am alone in the trailer and power use is min. Any thoughts?
Forum Discussion
DAS26miles wrote:
Ran a test today. Drained house batteries down 20 amps. Kept fridge running on propane. With fridge going and parasitic drain the draw is .6amps. Connected panels and end of day there was still 5.0 amps down. Panels went into float with .2amps charging at 13.2 volts.
I disconnected panels and started generator. When it settled in it was charging 5.0amps at 14.2 volts. Ran the generator for 20 minutes and the battery monitor showed 3.7 amps down.
So the panels are shutting down too soon before the batteries are fully topped off. The max voltage I saw on the controller was 14.4 volts.
Something I didn't consider was the basic draw of the fridge etc from the panels output. Thus max output of 5.8 gives me only 5.2 amps charging.
Tried to change charging perameters but didn't work. Hope Solar 30 controller will work better.
As stated previously, I set my solar 30 at 15.0v... that is actually about 15.3V measured with my DMM, output at the terminals of the solar 30 charge controller. You would be surprised how much longer it holds the amps at a higher level when the amp flow is so low at 5.5 Amps, compared to battery capacity, 150 A/H.
You will get a higher state of charge with your small set up of 130W of solar panels, on a daily basis, with the solar30 charge controller, and setting the bulk voltage higher.
