What's the best/safe way to connect a 100W panel & this controller to my 22ah portable power stations. (A Schumacher 1200 amp and Diehard 1150.) TIA
200918
Unlike many solar controllers that clam to be MPPT, this controller is a true MPPT controller and I recommend it. Per your question, I have no idea what you are trying to accomplish. db
200919
i just used 14 gauge electric wiring. it worked fine. the connections could take 12 gauge wire.
856829
I just purchased one to power an air pump for a 1 acre ranch tank. In addition to the panel you will need a DC-ac inverter, charge controller, and a 12 volt marine (deep cycle) battery. The instructions that come with the controller (Renogy PWC30) are straight forward. I found you will also need to purchase the power cables that plug into the panel and go to the controller, as well as the cables that connect the controller to the battery. I had planned to run the pump 24/7, but the pump draws too much power for the panel to keep the batteries charged. Have decided to put a timer on the pump so that it will run only 5 hrs/ day. If not, may need to add another battery parallel. Hope this helps I just purchased one to power an air pump for a 1 acre ranch tank. In addition to the panel you will need a DC-ac inverter, charge controller, and a 12 volt marine (deep cycle) battery. The instructions that come with the controller (Renogy PWC30) are straight forward. I found you will also need to purchase the power cables that plug into the panel and go to the controller, as well as the cables that connect the controller to the battery. I had planned to run the pump 24/7, but the pump draws too much power for the panel to keep the batteries charged. Have decided to put a timer on the pump... » Read More I just purchased one to power an air pump for a 1 acre ranch tank. In addition to the panel you will need a DC-ac inverter, charge controller, and a 12 volt marine (deep cycle) battery. The instructions that come with the controller (Renogy PWC30) are straight forward. I found you will also need to purchase the power cables that plug into the panel and go to the controller, as well as the cables that connect the controller to the battery. I had planned to run the pump 24/7, but the pump draws too much power for the panel to keep the batteries charged. Have decided to put a timer on the pump so that it will run only 5 hrs/ day. If not, may need to add another battery parallel. Hope this helps « Show Less
752588
I have two 275 watt panels hooked to mine. I believe I have room to add another. It is a 30 amp charge controller. B
2129617
MC4 connectors are nice, but not necessary. The most important thing is the size of the wire you use. With DC power, the longer the wires, the heavier they must be. On my rv, I am using #4 wire from my panels to my controller, a distance of about 12 feet to minimize the power loss from the wires. As far as connectors are concerned, many people use two poled automotive connectors. No need to try to connect heavy gauge wire into the box on the back of the panel. Its much easier to splice (waterproof) the wires supplied with the panel to the wires going to the controller or use connector plugs. Hope this helps.
232356
The safest way for both your equipment and your battery is to always use a charge controller. We have about 20 of these panels in use with MPPT type charge controllers purchased off eBay for about $10 each and they work great. These panels won't, however, keep up with a very big electric load. We use 9 amp-hour batteries with a continuous load of just under 100 milliamps, and with these solar panels our load stays powered an average of 12 hours per day (which is all we need). It's important to do the math to properly match your load requirements with a large enough solar panel, battery and charge controller. The safest way for both your equipment and your battery is to always use a charge controller. We have about 20 of these panels in use with MPPT type charge controllers purchased off eBay for about $10 each and they work great. These panels won't, however, keep up with a very big electric load. We use 9 amp-hour batteries with a continuous load of just under 100 milliamps, and with these solar panels our load stays powered an average of 12 hours per day (which is all we need). It's important to do the math to properly match your load requirements with a large enough solar panel, battery and... » Read More The safest way for both your equipment and your battery is to always use a charge controller. We have about 20 of these panels in use with MPPT type charge controllers purchased off eBay for about $10 each and they work great. These panels won't, however, keep up with a very big electric load. We use 9 amp-hour batteries with a continuous load of just under 100 milliamps, and with these solar panels our load stays powered an average of 12 hours per day (which is all we need). It's important to do the math to properly match your load requirements with a large enough solar panel, battery and charge controller. « Show Less
880317
Many years ago i was told in powering my boat, any solar panel 50 watts or less would be ok without a controller. Over that and it may fry the battteries. Yes you can godirect, but you have to moniter and be tne controller.
1722743
You can hook 4x100w in series or 2 sets of 2x100w in series/parallel with this controller. Adjust your fusing and wiring accordingly. I intend to add the extra 2x100w in parallel with the existing 2x100w set I have. I should mention that my system is setup to run as 24v (panels, batteries, controller and inverter (240vac out)).
1919771
Yes. You'll be fine. Max amps are 20 for this controller. With optimal lighting your panels may never even actually reach 3x 5.57 amps. Also, since this controller will charge 24 volts, you can actually run twice the panels at double voltage and still keep amps under 20. Read the manual!
2215261
The goal of using an "MPPT" (maximum power point tracking) controller with a panel like this is to automatically detect how much power you can get (in both volts and amps) from the panel, then take that and put out as much power as you can to the battery you're charging. On many panels like this, the actual optimum output (to get the "50 watts" it's labeled as) is at something like 19V & 2.6 amps, yet charging a typical 12V battery (which is "fully charged" at 14-14.5V) would mean that just connecting it directly only gives you ~40 watts with the 2.6 amps at ~14V. An MPPT controller will take in that 19V 2.6 amps and give off ~14V 3.3 amps where both of those powers are ~50 watts, but are obviously different V & A ammounts. So being able to take in all the power you can (but not be virtually "shorting" out the panel) as well as "transform" all of that to the best voltage & amps takes a lot more circuitry than a cheapy controller that just "switches on & off" based on reaching the battery "full voltage" level (or detecting a drop in battery voltage). You can choose to design a controller intended to be able to handle 100 watts, 500 watts, 1000 watts, or any other range you want (which can be for certain size panels and/or battery sizes). One MPPT controller I have even says it can take in power at 19V, 38V or 69V from panels and then put out power to a battery bank at ~12V or 24V systems (and will automatically detect the power from each of those systems & adjust things internally having the same "input" and "output" connections for any system). Of course you still need higher input voltage than output, so you can't charge 24V batteries with only 19V input (unless you can come up with a way to "transform" things in that manor). Hope you can come up with a fairly efficient circuit design.
575744
Controllers don't care about brand name solar panels. It's just an input. You should consider a 30 amp controller for about the same price. You will expand your system as you find out how much more useful larger systems are. I started with 100 watts and now have 400. Just my humble advise.
1056067
I have several solar panels. I started out with the MC4 connecters but found them both very un-reliable and hard to work with. I would lose power on a/some panels, trace the problem/s to the connectors (always). I simply replaced the line coming out of the panels with some long enough to run to weather proof plastic junction boxes, running the positive leads into one and the negative to the others. Out of those to my charge controller. Problems ended, and WAY lower cost than those MC4 connectors and the over priced branch connector un-reliable cables or over priced boxes.
2236907
I use this panel to charge a 4ah lithium iron phosphate battery w/ a charge controller to regulate voltage(14.1). I wanted an unbreakable portable panel for charging electronic devices. You could link two of these in parallel to 2 group 24 batteries but it would only be a trickle charge(<20watts). I would suggest a cheap charge controller even though it's not necessary to extend your battery life. These are nice panels but for two 85ah batteries you might aim for 50-75watts.
1636541
Most 100 watt panels are about 5 amp. I use 2, but I also have 4 - 6 volt batteries and a charge controller connected. I am not sure if that is needed.
576630
Zubby,This controller can handle up to 125 open circuit volts input. You can series your panels together to get a theoretical voltage of 96 volts, this will have less voltage drop and give you approximately 10 1/2 amps on the input side of the controller. Your problem is with a 12 volt battery bank your amperages on the output of the controller could exceed 80 amps ( 1000 watts divided by 12 volts equals 83.3 amps ). You would need (2) of these controllers with your present configuration. If it is possible; you could make your 12 volt battery bank into a 24 volt battery bank and get a 24 volt inverter, then you would need only (1) controller. ( 1000 watts divided by 24 volts equals 41.6 amps ) Zubby,This controller can handle up to 125 open circuit volts input. You can series your panels together to get a theoretical voltage of 96 volts, this will have less voltage drop and give you approximately 10 1/2 amps on the input side of the controller. Your problem is with a 12 volt battery bank your amperages on the output of the controller could exceed 80 amps ( 1000 watts divided by 12 volts equals 83.3 amps ). You would need (2) of these controllers with your present configuration. If it is possible; you could make your 12 volt battery bank into a 24 volt battery bank and get a... » Read More Zubby,This controller can handle up to 125 open circuit volts input. You can series your panels together to get a theoretical voltage of 96 volts, this will have less voltage drop and give you approximately 10 1/2 amps on the input side of the controller. Your problem is with a 12 volt battery bank your amperages on the output of the controller could exceed 80 amps ( 1000 watts divided by 12 volts equals 83.3 amps ). You would need (2) of these controllers with your present configuration. If it is possible; you could make your 12 volt battery bank into a 24 volt battery bank and get a 24 volt inverter, then you would need only (1) controller. ( 1000 watts divided by 24 volts equals 41.6 amps ) « Show Less
1680257
Leon-I have had two sets of two 145W panels running through my two Sun-Force Controllers since Jan 2013 and have had no problems. The directions on the box say that they can handle up to 440w ea. and I'm at 290W. I plan on hooking one more 145W panel to each of my two controllers so I'll then have 435W on ea. panel? I'll see what happens. I have been very happy with my setup and I bought all of it through Amazon. As I saw mentioned in one or more of the other responses, I would run two panels to one controller like I have not four to one controller. Good luck
1293262
You will need a copper buss bar and some mc4 connectors. Run the positive wires in 10 gauge wire from the panels to the copper buss bar then a 8 gauge stranded copper wire from the buss bar to the charge controller. You can get a mc4 tee connector to tie the negative wires together and run one wire to the location of the charge controller. Do not do this for the positive wires from the panels to the controller, that's what I Sid first and found out a couple weeks later I was only getting power from one panel.
1722745
its a 20 amp controller watts = volts X amps. So, 12 volts X 20 amps = 240 watts, so you can only hook up 2 - 100 watt panels.