Sunday, Feb 16, 2014 at 08:12
"I have been told by both Redarc and Ctek, you have to disconnect the other panels regulator.
I f you have a DC-DC charger fitted you won't need the panel regulator anyway."
If you have one of the dc-dc chargers that includes a solar controller such as some from Redarc and Ctek, then you would preferably connect all panels directly to its solar input and bypass any other controllers. The dc-dc charger is only concerned with what's coming from the alternator though - with most dc-dc chargers (those lacking the solar function) you DO need a solar regulator.
As Dennis has explained, it's better to use a single solar regulator rather than one for each panel.
Your Redarc BCDC1240 and Redarc BMS do include MPPT solar regulators so hopefully your sparky has connected your extra anderson plugs to their solar inputs. If that's the case, you should bypass the on-panel controller. If however he's simply connected the plugs directly to the batteries you will need to retain the on-panel controller.
Down below, dieseltojo says he's been informed that additional panels should be of similar size to the original, otherwise " the lower level panel will reduce the effectiveness of the larger panel to that of the smaller one". He has been misinformed - this is not so. Perhaps the salesman was confused by the effects Dennis referred to, or maybe he was just confused or prone to inventing new facts as salesmen tend to do!
Cheers
John | J and V
"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted."
- Albert Einstein
Lifetime Member
My Profile My Blog Send Message |
FollowupID:
808748