Post by Upton O'Good on Mar 3, 2019 6:15:37 GMT
Hi Folks,
As is, this thing works really great with our minimal loads.
However, the requirements seem to have changed and we have decided that there are a few more items required for roughing it at a music festival this year and we're not getting any younger. After some amount of testing and calculations, it appears I will need to add another 35ah to the battery bank (already done) and another 100 watts of solar to support these enhancements. So, I believe I need to upgrade the current 10A charge controller configuration in order to support the 100 watt panel. My question is this:
1. Should I use two charge controllers (the 10A attached to the 50 watt panel) and a new 30A? charge controller for the additional 100 watt panel?
Or,
2. Should I hook the two panels in parallel and only use the new larger (and hopefully better) PWM controller?
I'm leaning towards heavily towards number 2. But in any case, I would certainly appreciate your opinion.
BTW, the truck is a Ford Ranger so the space for additional panels is limited
Hey, maybe I should upgrade the camping truck too!....
.
Regards,
Upton O'Good
First time posting on here, so I hope I followed the rules. If not, I certainly apologize.
A year or so ago I bought a Renogy 50 watt Poly Solar Starter kit from a large online retailer. I created a portable solution by mounting the panel on top of the pickup topper and installed all the rest of the guts (including the 10A PWM charge controller included in the kit and a 35ah AGM battery) in a tool box for camping. The usual fusing, switches, cigarette lighter sockets, bracketry and usb outputs were installed and I gathered up several dodads like 12 volt AAA/AA/C/D/18650 battery charger, two Li-Ion power banks and some low power USB lighting.
As is, this thing works really great with our minimal loads.
However, the requirements seem to have changed and we have decided that there are a few more items required for roughing it at a music festival this year and we're not getting any younger. After some amount of testing and calculations, it appears I will need to add another 35ah to the battery bank (already done) and another 100 watts of solar to support these enhancements. So, I believe I need to upgrade the current 10A charge controller configuration in order to support the 100 watt panel. My question is this:
1. Should I use two charge controllers (the 10A attached to the 50 watt panel) and a new 30A? charge controller for the additional 100 watt panel?
Or,
2. Should I hook the two panels in parallel and only use the new larger (and hopefully better) PWM controller?
I'm leaning towards heavily towards number 2. But in any case, I would certainly appreciate your opinion.
BTW, the truck is a Ford Ranger so the space for additional panels is limited
Hey, maybe I should upgrade the camping truck too!....
.Regards,
Upton O'Good
