Do I Need A Charge Controller For Solar Panel

Charging your batteries with a solar panel is a great way to use clean renewable energy.

Do i need a charge controller for solar panel.

If you have a five watt panel in the above example you take 100 divided by 3 300ma and you come up with 333 3. I get asked this question quite often and the answer is almost always a resounding yes. The charge process is performed in a smart or intelligent way. Charge controllers prevent this from happening by acting as a valve.

Last summer i finally had the opportunity to set this up for demonstration with a small 12w solar panel and two different battery banks. For further reading mppt pdf. Solar charge controllers are designed to do two main things within a solar power system. A charge controller or charge regulator is basically a voltage and or current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging.

The function of a charge controller is to regulate the charge going into your battery bank from your solar panel array and prevent overcharging and reverse current flow at night. This means if your battery is full it stops the charging and if your battery is reaching an unhealthy. If a panel puts out 2 watts or less for each 50 battery amp hours you probably don t need a charge controller. Most 12 volt panels put out about 16 to 20 volts so if there is no regulation the batteries will be damaged from overcharging.

How to select a solar charge controller what size of solar charge controller do i need. Many of the solar charge controllers we offer have additional features including the ability to automatically turn dc powered. Solar charge controller functions. Do i always need a solar charge controller.

Optimize the charging of your deep cycle batteries by the solar panels and prevent electricity stored in the batteries from going through the solar panels when there is no sun. If you have an mmpt solar charge controller you have the room to get higher wattage solar panels at 24v or 48v without loosing to much power. You don t need a charge controller with small 1 to 5 watt panels. There are always caveats to everything however.

It does this by using a transistor to shunt the pv charging circuit. Since this is less than 200 you need a charge controller. A solar charge controller is designed to receive power from a solar panel or array of panels and use it to charge a battery or bank of batteries. It regulates the voltage and current coming from the solar panels going to the battery.

However you still need a blocking diode to prevent the battery from discharging to the panel at night. Keep in mind that you don t need one when the panel releases less than or equal to two watts for every fifty battery amp hours. Do i need a solar charge controller. Since this is larger than 200 you do not need a charge controller.