Do I Need A Charge Controller For Solar Panel

If you have an mmpt solar charge controller you have the room to get higher wattage solar panels at 24v or 48v without loosing to much power.

Do i need a charge controller for solar panel.

A charge controller or charge regulator is basically a voltage and or current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging. This means if your battery is full it stops the charging and if your battery is reaching an unhealthy. Charge controllers prevent this from happening by acting as a valve. There are always caveats to everything however.

However before you can get started you ll need to install a charge controller which regulates the voltage from the solar panel as it s transferred to the battery. How to select a solar charge controller what size of solar charge controller do i need. The charge process is performed in a smart or intelligent way. A solar charge controller is designed to receive power from a solar panel or array of panels and use it to charge a battery or bank of batteries.

The function of a charge controller is to regulate the charge going into your battery bank from your solar panel array and prevent overcharging and reverse current flow at night. Anything beyond that and you do. Most 12 volt panels put out about 16 to 20 volts so if there is no regulation the batteries will be damaged from overcharging. Optimize the charging of your deep cycle batteries by the solar panels and prevent electricity stored in the batteries from going through the solar panels when there is no sun.

It does this by using a transistor to shunt the pv charging circuit. If you have a five watt panel in the above example you take 100 divided by 3 300ma and you come up with 333 3. However you still need a blocking diode to prevent the battery from discharging to the panel at night. Many of the solar charge controllers we offer have additional features including the ability to automatically turn dc powered.

In general you do not require a charge controller that usually requires the minimum maintenance or drop charge panels including but never limited to the one to five watt panels. You don t need a charge controller with small 1 to 5 watt panels. If a panel puts out 2 watts or less for each 50 battery amp hours you probably don t need a charge controller. I get asked this question quite often and the answer is almost always a resounding yes.

For further reading mppt pdf. Charging your batteries with a solar panel is a great way to use clean renewable energy. Last summer i finally had the opportunity to set this up for demonstration with a small 12w solar panel and two different battery banks. Since this is larger than 200 you do not need a charge controller.

Keep in mind that you don t need one when the panel releases less than or equal to two watts for every fifty battery amp hours. Do i need a solar charge controller. Solar charge controller functions. Solar charge controllers are designed to do two main things within a solar power system.