Solar panels and batteries
Submitted: Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010 at 10:25
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Member - Keith B (QLD)
I am relatively new to this
forum so pls forgive me if this has already been done to death.
I want to be able to charge up my accessory battery (standard dual battery set up in my Cruiser), using solar panels while camped in one spot for a few days. Can I just connect the panel output directly to the battery terminals (it has a regulator) or do Ii have to disconnect the wiring from the battery before I connect the panels? Do I need to loosen the battery electrolyte caps?
Thanks
Reply By: Battery Value Pty Ltd - Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010 at 11:00
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010 at 11:00
Hi Keith,
you can leave the battery connected.
Just hook up your solar panel/regulator and let it charge away on your battery.
No need to undo the caps because the amount of gas will be very small due to the tightly regulated current through the battery.
Only thing is, that if battery is connected to any loads while receiving charge, some solar regulators (multi stage ones) can confuse battery current with load current. There is a chance that the regulator could over-charge the battery somewhat.
Stick a voltmeter on the battery and observe voltages several times a day.
On a multistage regulator, you want to see the volts rise up to the boost setpoint of around 14.4V, and then the volts should decrease to around 13.6V (float voltage set point).
If the 14.4V stay up there for longer than a couple of hours, then this could be caused by load currents like fridge etc...
cheers, Peter
AnswerID:
430274
Reply By: Maîneÿ . . .- Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010 at 19:44
Tuesday, Sep 14, 2010 at 19:44
Keith,
as said above you can, BUT... when connecting the solar panel to the battery, FIRST thing is to place a blanket over the solar panel, when all connected then remove the blanket.
Don't need to touch battery caps.
Maîneÿ . . .
AnswerID:
430331