[Rhodes22-list] Rhodes Solar Panel Make Capacity// battery selector settings

[Lowe, Rob]

During the day when the sun is shining, current goes from the solar panel to the battery.  At night, the current can reverse direction, which would discharge the battery.  I am pretty sure all solar panels have built in diodes to prevent this.  It wouldn't hurt to check when ordering, but I would be very surprised to find a solar panel without a built in diode.

Charge controllers prevent overcharging your batteries.  If you are using a certain amperage (or wattage) panel with a large enough battery, you don't need a charge controller.  The way Stan sets the boats up, you do not need a charge controller.  I think a 15 watt panel (1 amp) can connect up to a typical marine battery w/o a controller.  According to West Marine (info below from their web site), you size a controller based on the wattage of your panels and the capacity of your battery. - rob

"When Do Panels Require Regulation?
As a general rule panels that produce less than 1.5% of a battery's rated capacity in amp hours do not require regulation. This means that a 1.5 amp panel is the largest you should use without a regulator on a 100-amp-hour battery. Regulators should generally be used any time you have two or more large panels connected to your batteries.  One caveat to the general rule applies to cruising boats that run an "energy deficit". That is, when your boat removes more energy from the batteries than the panels replace. In this case, regulation might not be required. If you think you might fall into this category, it would be helpful to develop an "electrical budget" for your boat. You will find a helpful guide to this in the You Can Do It project section here at westmarine.com. Frequent checks of your system voltage can alert you to possible over-voltage situations. Remember, a simple On/Off switch can remedy this problem by taking the panels off-line."

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org [mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org] On Behalf Of KUHN, LELAND
Sent: Tuesday, March 30, 2010 10:54 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 Email List
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] Rhodes Solar Panel Make Capacity// battery selector settings


Rod,
Rod,

Sorry but I don't know.  Partly because I don't know what controllers or
diodes are.  The only thing on my solar panels appears to be bird shit.

Hope that helps!

Lee