How do you charge a battery on 240v if its on a solar system?
Submitted: Friday, Mar 05, 2010 at 21:17
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bushy04
Have just set the caravan up with a
solar power system, 130w panels and 100ah deep cycle agm battery.
The regulator for the solar is rated to 20a.
Do I need to disconnect the solar to run the 240v charger?
Thanks for you're help.
Bushy
Reply By: Ozhumvee - Saturday, Mar 06, 2010 at 11:14
Saturday, Mar 06, 2010 at 11:14
Yep just connect it to the batteries and charge away.
Depending on where you live, travel and the time of year and how you travel will depend on whether you can rely on a solar system.
If you have a large van or motorhome to allow solar generating capacity and battery in excess of your needs then yes you probably can rely on the solar year round pretty much anywhere.
If you travel in the northern half of the country during the cooler months with virtually cloudless blue skies for six months then yes you probably can rely on solar.
BUT if you are like plenty of people that travel without the luxury of a huge roof expanse to mount solar panels and plenty of space and carrying capacity for large battery banks then you either need to regularly connect to 240v in a van park or have an alternative energy source ie gennie to provide the recharging facility during inclement weather and periods of short distance/small engine running times needed to recharge batteries.
Yes we do have a small solar panel (50w) which does keep up with the Autofridge and the one CF globe we run at night. During fine weather and our normal travelling regime of several days of continuous travelling and then a max of one or two stationary the dual battery combined with the panel will allow us to
camp continuously without flattening the battery.
But if we travel very slowly/only a couple of hours a day and the panel is not put out due to rain/cloud etc etc then after a week the aux battery is flat!
We encountered this scenario on our last trip to WA, all was fine till we went south of Port Headland and encountered weeks of 10/10ths cloud, rain and short travelling times and distances. With the vehicle not being run more than an hour or two a day and no solar input we found that anything past 24 hours would result in all batteries flat and us going nowhere.
After much deliberation we bought a 1kva Yammie gennie and a 25 amp Ctek which means that we can charge the batteries very quickly if needed. The 7 amp Ctek works
well but means long run times for the gennie to charge the batteries.
Buying more solar capacity was preferable but raised two problems, still reduced/no generation when full cloud cover and rain periods and where do you carry the panels?
We tend to
free camp mostly so having to stay in van parks/cabins was also a downer never mind the expense.
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