<span class="highlight">solar</span> <span class="highlight">panel</span> question

Hi rumpig - great handle, should I be amused or disgusted? :-)

There are some highly experienced sparkies on this site who will give you great detail (or you could search the threads) but I think you answered your own q.

You have a solar regulator? - it will go into 'float' mode and put minimal charge to the battery when it reaches the threshold voltage. You might want to check what the specs for your regulator are - different amp , voltage and float for wet cell v gel etc.
Also you have a dual battery controller - it will do the same thing. Running the solar through the battery controller may not be the most efficient/best use of the panel - without specs I couldn't say.
Short story long - you wont overcharge your battery if the regulators are correct.
Only other tip is make sure your solar regulator is one-way otherwise you 'trickle' some power back out to the panel when the sun goes down. (Most are these days)
Wait for one of the smart blokes here to reply who will give you all the lowdown.

cheers
ramjet

cheers ramjet,
the way i thought a regualtor works, was just to keep the current coming out of the solar panel at a certain range of voltage, i'll have to research the actual product i have installed, to see about the "float" mode you are mentioning.
thanks for your help

Hi John,
my set up is as you have described in your second sentence, the fuse is right at the battery though the regulator is at the rear of the vehicle as i couldn't find a suitable location for it under the bonnet. the only reason it has the cable with anderson plugs from the regulator to the solar panel, was i didn't have time to run the wiring properly before i went away on a 5 week holiday recently, it was a last minute addition on the roofrack.
cheers.

Rumpig - There is advantage in having the solar regulator close to the battery, rather than at the panel. Having battery and regulator separated is no big deal, especially if you've used heavy cable. It's a preference, not a "must do". Your present anderson plug arrangement has the advantage that you can set the panel up on the ground to get optimum sun angle - I use just that arrangement myself.

Cheers

John

Nick,

Sorry - I misread your post. My comments above are equally valid where you aren't using an auxilliary battery, just charging the vehicle's own battery with both solar and alternator. No problem using them together, provided you have a solar regulator.

Cheers

John

Hi Nick,

in a stock standard dual battery setup it doesn't make sense to have the solar panel wired to the battery (with or without regulator) during alternator charging.
That's because the battery voltage is limited by the alternator voltage setting.
Meaning that even though the solar regulator might want to push the battery voltage higher, it can't go higher because then the alternator would reduce its output current.
In order for the battery voltage to go higher in this scenario, the panel/regulator would have to be powerful enough to supply all running 12V loads of the vehicle.
Only an open ignition switch and/or isolation switch enables the battery voltage to go higher because then the solar current can only flow through the battery (and any loads connected to it directly/or through the solar controller).

But there's a technical solution which allows the battery voltage to increase beyond the alternator voltage during cruising, by means of solar charging current.
This involves wiring in series a special diode which allows bulk charging from the alternator, but prevents solar current from flowing through the vehicle's electrics, thus the battery voltage can rise to whatever level the solar regulator pushes it, while the alternator spins.

If you need details, just PM me.
cheers, Peter

Thank again to all for your reply's , Q could a solar panel fully charge a battery in the camper trailer instead of having a 12volt battery charger ?

cheers