Thread: overnight/days charging

Plus every few weeks i'll be doing a good day trip to see the delights of Tassie.

A Much Better idea than mucking about with battery chargers and solar panels, Lucky Bugger

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This is the specs of my spare solar charger

Hi Gazza, that is the specs on the back of your solar panel.

This is an unregulated solar panel.

While it is highly unlikely that that panel will have enough power to raise your cranking battery voltage much over 14.0v, with out a solar regulator, you might keep an eye on the voltage of your battery, in the afternoon, if you use the panel without a regulator.

NOTE, if I was using that panel, I would not both using a solar regulator, but a 10 watt solar panel is the largest I would use with out a regulator, in a single battery setup.

Regulators are cheap. Jaycar have them. As others have said, you either have one on the panel or next to the battery. If next to the battery it will overcome worries about voltage drop as the full power generated will flow down the cable to the regulator before being curbed.
I have used 10 metre heavy cables with a regulator without problems. It's set and forget.

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Regulators are cheap. Jaycar have them. As others have said, you either have one on the panel or next to the battery. If next to the battery it will overcome worries about voltage drop as the full power generated will flow down the cable to the regulator before being curbed.
I have used 10 metre heavy cables with a regulator without problems. It's set and forget.

Sorry to not pick - the full voltage of the panel minus voltage drop will get to the remotely mounted reg. Power is volts x amps - and current flow - and hence power, is dictated by the load, so is variable and full power may not be delivered due to this.

With my OCD satisfied, please carry on...

Have had a look at panels on fleabay and found this one.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10W-12V-...r/123313817513

Is this what I should get?

TIA

I'd go a bit bigger. 30 to 50 watts minimum IMO. You can't go too big, but you can go too small.

Originally Posted by Homestar

Sorry to not pick - the full voltage of the panel minus voltage drop will get to the remotely mounted reg. Power is volts x amps - and current flow - and hence power, is dictated by the load, so is variable and full power may not be delivered due to this.

With my OCD satisfied, please carry on...

No worries, I was just trying to keep it simple, but maybe not clear. I'll try again.

For part of the day the panel will probably generate more than the regulator will allow, so allowing that extra to flow down the wiring to a regulator near the battery, minus voltage drop, could mean the maximum allowed by the regulator could reach the battery for a longer period, compared with the regulator being on the panel and immediately limiting it.
That better?