solar panels battery charging

Robert don't know what the hell happened here.
Read the last one only, it is the complete version.

ozi, those fires must have had you worried, got the finger shakin' pretty bad on that mouse key? See ya..

Bob is not at all good. We lost a shed, but cleared out gear three days ago as we knew it was inevitable as they could not stop it. Would have needed rain or a dramatic wind shift. Is fully insured for replacement value.

Bruce have you priced stuff from Solar Sales compared to other outlets?

Suggest you do and see the price differences on some identical brand/make model and specifications.

ozi
no cant say i have they are customer of mine for 15 odd years so they look after me but they know what they are talking about & wont sell you something that wont work

Robert,
The ONLY way to eliminate the overcharge and damage to a battery or in your case EIGHT (8) batteries, maybe $800 replacement value, is to either:
A. use a regulator with a decent sized pannel.
B. use a smaller than what would be normally recomended solar pannel without a regulator...
However, you also say you would like to use the solar pannel to recharge your camper, choice (A) will do that for you.

K-Mart stores have solar pannel battery rechargers on their shelf, if you read the Manufacturers recomendations and output you will see for yourself if they will work for you.
I use a Solarex 80watt, 4.71 amp, panel to power my camper's battery system and it works a treat. (I won't mention the brand of fridge or calcium batteries) lol.

Robert those panels are Monocrystalline (blue) panels - the blue panels

Robert charging batteries is all about voltage. With that 4.5watt panel shared between two batteries, and with a Shotky diode fitted between each battery, yes, I can most definately state they will not overcharge.
Robert www.jaycar.com.au have the panels and would have the Shotky diodes as well.
Who do you want to phone, Jaycar but only to order the panels, as you will find nobody there that knows anything about them.

Now for the panel for your camper van. Robert there are lies, more lies and then statistics and specifications and saleman.
As for any panels charging in the shade bull manure. Now, because an amphourous (black) panel is made up of more cells as are modern monocrystaline (blue) panels if they get slightly shaded, then they will charge a small amount, but of course shade of any sort on a panel cuts down the charging rate dramatically.

Now more lies, damn lies and statistics/specifications/salesman.
If you download all the specification sheets for solar panels, you will see that the amount of energy difference on a monocrystaline (blue) panel over their ideal tempreture of 25C is NEGLIGIBLE. Now under 25C a Monocrystalline (blue) panel is substantially better than an Amphourous panel (black) Yes, the amphorous people are quick to say how much better their panels perform in the heat, yes, marginally they do, but the forget to tell you how badly they perform under 25C and colder. As you well know, in some parts of Australia for probably six months of the year and maybe more, some places never get above 25c at all during the day, and remember we are talking about PEAK day tempretures. What about all the days when the average sunlight temprature would only be say 17C average all day.

As for the stores of multicrystalline panels breaking the glass, well, if you break the glass on multicrystalline panel, you can rest assured the amphourous panel would also be destroyed. The quality brand panels all use quartz glass which is incredibly tough and you can jump on it.

Why do I prefer multicrystilline/polycristilline to amphourous, well amphourous panels are substantially larger in area than multicrystilline and all year round they perform better.

Robert I think your 25 amps a day for your fridge would be understated, and would suggest it would be more like 36aH. Now, to run that fridge all year round and your lights etc, you would need 2 x 75w panels to cope with all weather conditions and that would/should guarantee cover it. For most average years, 2 X 60w panels in the large majority of circumstances would cover it. Now for you using your vehicle part time to charge the battery, the difference in prices between 60w and 75w is not that much and would go for the 75w.
Robert, a solar panel of say 60w does not deliver 5amps to charge a battery. You can derate that by close to 50%, and I always work on 50%.
Best prices on panels currently is:
www.biasboating.com.au
They are on average $200 panel cheaper than others.
The regulator you want is the MP3126 from Jaycar Electronics $69.90

Sorry, Robert, you cannot phone me I don't sell solar or wind gear, just worked in it for far to many years.

thanks everyone for the great info,websites etc. have to agree will need more watts to charge the fridge and will go with 2 solar panels. now must look into the size of the larger panels to make sure it will fit on top of my camper trailer. apparently some 64 to 80 watt panel come with hard frames and other don't. will keep you updated and may have some other questions. again thanks for all the help. cheers, robert