Thread: Solar trickle charging

Hi Andrew and anything around 10w can safely be used without the need of a regulator.

Anything much bigger than 10w and it is advisable to fit the regulator.

Thanks Tim

So do you thinki can just pug it in through the Anderson outlet? Or should I g direct to the battery?

My old RRC lives on a solar charger, but with our long overcast winter months a 10W panel fails to keep the battery charged. I have a simple 5A regulator and a 20W panel and this is adequate all year round. I recently bought another regulator for a friend with a farm ute that sees long periods of idleness. They're not expensive. The spare panel then becomes a portable charger you can use on any battery.

Solar Regulator Charge Controller 5A 12V PWM Hundreds Sold | eBay

I don't see why you couldn't connect another panel to your existing regulator, darkened solar panels would have a fairly high impedance and wouldn't significantly affect the charge rate of an extra panel.

My understanding is any panel you fit needs to have a diode fitted to it otherwise what it charges in the daylight it discharges back out at night.

Originally Posted by AnD3rew

So do you thinki can just pug it in through the Anderson outlet?

Hi again Andrew and yes, you can come straight off the solar regulator and into the rear mounted Anderson plug.

With your set up, this will keep both batteries in a charged and maintained state.

If anyone else is contemplating this type of operation, a little tip, unless you have one of my isolators ( and the USI-160 must be set to SHEARED Mode ), you will need to make the solar connection at your cranking battery.

This is because all other isolators will disconnect the cranking battery once the motor is turned off and then you will only be charging the auxiliary battery.