solar panel amps

Sorry about the spelling, big night last night.

Your maths is "out" enough to cause problems ,, 64w divided by 16.5v = 3.87 amps....your regulator would /should have provision to change from wet cell battery to gel /agm/ batteries as different voltages are required ,,

Umm the may amps are higher than the april amps but not as good as the june amps. At any rate the amps as quoted are at a rated nominal amount os 13.33 volts i.e. 64w/4.8a=13.33volts or so Ohm said in Septmeber 1836 (they would be Sept amps)

You couldnt get 4.8amps at 16.5volt from a 64watt panel regardless of month (although I am still not sure about March, I never trusted March)

As top a regulated voltage I would assume that the regulator would reduce both voltage and amps as it would consume a small amount to work itself. How mux I am not prepared to venture.

Thanks for the help, if i was to get 64 watt in a perfect situation and the power was regulated to 14.1 volts, would the following equation apply.

64/14.1=4.5amps, or am I getting totally confused, the unisolar panel specs state that it short circuits at 4.8 amps

cheers

What about the 1st April no amps no volts

.......and leap years??????

64 watt panel will deliver a peak of 64 watts at a certain voltage in full sunlight. If you connect a battery across the panel, then the "output" voltage of the panel is reduced, along with the current, and therefore the total power output of the panel is reduced (not in a linear fashion, see you spec sheet on the power curves for the panel). Rely on about half to two thirds of the "rated" output.

Regulator will not increase the current, it actually dissipates some of the power as heat in the process of regulating the voltage output from it into the battery. There may be some switchmode regulators that are capable of increasing the current marginally as a tradeoff for reducing the voltage, but it wouldn't be worth the extra cost.

Here is a graph on my BP80 panels.



You can see heat does affect the amps but not a lot. Your biggest factor is that as the battery charges up it will absorb less amps. The final charge cycle could take quite a long time.

Remember that although the amps may be around 5 amps on a 80w panel your battery will not absorb the full 5 amps all day.

Regards Derek.