Comment: Electricity for Camping

Submitted: Thursday, Sep 13, 2012 at 13:45

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Electricity for Camping

Revised March 2013 On an extended trip it's good to have some of the comforts of home. Electricity is obviously one of them and a good system can make all the difference to how comfortably

Glenn M4

Hi John

You mention in your article about solar panels. I have been given some folding solar panels that are 200W. They have a controller on them but i am not sure what type but i believe only 10A. Is there any danger in the panels providing too much wattage when connected to charge the battery or will the controller adjust for this. If i remove the controller can i replace it with another and what would you recommend for me to use for the 200W panels to charge a 120AH AGM battery?

THanks

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Reply By: Member - John and Val - Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:52

Wednesday, Mar 04, 2015 at 00:52

Hi Glen,

Given 200W of solar panels?? Lucky man!!
If I understand correctly, you have a pair of panels hinged together and the total rated output of the pair is 200W. The pair has one 10A controller.

This sounds an unusual setup. I wonder if the labelling is correct. 200W of panel will have an area of about 2 square metres. Does it look to be about that?

The controller is probably a simple non-MPPT type. This may be satisfactory in a typical camping setup, since you probably won't need the maximum output of your panels if they can in fact deliver 200W. At 200W though, the panels can directly deliver about 11 or 12 amps, which is really a bit too far outside the range of a 10A controller. Also, it is much better to have the controller close to the battery, rather than close to the panels.

I think I'd be inclined to invest in a MPPT controller capable of handling at least 15A, instal it near the battery, and bypass (or remove) the present controller. I can't recommend any particular controller as my experience is limited to smaller systems. One worth considering is the Ctek dual d250s which combines a MPPT solar controller with 20A DC-DC charger, and includes a controller to manage charging from the vehicle. It's a good combination, but I haven't used it myself.

Could you overcharge and damage your battery with the big panels? Yes. A controller should stop charging once the battery is fully charged. The risk with a 10A controller is that it may fail and not do that job.

Hope that's some help. Please get back to me if it doesn't make sense!

Cheers

John