I am considering putting 5 of these on my RV's roof for off-grid camping. I already have a 2800 watt PSW inverter and 6 AGM batteries. Will a Morningstar MPPT 60 watt controller be adequate for all five panels at peak output? I am considering putting 5 of these on my RV's roof for off-grid camping. I already have a 2800 watt PSW inverter and 6 AGM batteries. Will a Morningstar MPPT 60 watt controller be adequate for... » Read More I am considering putting 5 of these on my RV's roof for off-grid camping. I already have a 2800 watt PSW inverter and 6 AGM batteries. Will a Morningstar MPPT 60 watt controller be adequate for all five panels at peak output? « Show Less
1499713
a morningstar 60 <AMP> controller will not be big enough, this is what I have for just 3 of the panels, and it is maxed out. Have you looked to see if you can put 5 on top ? I have a 35 foot RV but there are a lot of things up top that get in the way... Anyway, get the 80 amp morningstar and maybe just 4 panels.The grapesolar and the morningstar have worked very well for me. I would also suggest the remote panel(s)good luck !
279998
I have a 5000 watt power invertor. I have 4 solar panels on the roof to keep 4 group31 batteries charged to power the invertor. I also have a battery isolator to charge batteries from the alternator and shuts off when they are charged back up.
1680258
From My experience the "30 amp" Sunforce controller is not robust enough for the output of the 4 158 Watt panels. I had to buy an Outback controller. Because there does not seem to be a good inexpensive controller in the realm of 30 to 60 amps out there. You could get 2 controllers and split the panels. A little more info on the Sunforce controller, they die quietly for the most part, and there are some Websites out there that may have figured out a way to beef up the controller. The world of solar is very seductive and can suck your wallet dry in minutes... or months. If you are just trying to supplement your home use, and do not need power at night, you should consider getting a 500 watt grid tie inverter. During the day the inverter will produce power, and run reduce the speed of the electric meter, if it makes more than you are using it will run the meter backwards.They plug right into the house, and they have island protection, meaning that if the power goes out the inverter stop. Amazon has them,
16924
Not sure about "regulation". I use it as a roof mount on my RV to keep the house batteries charged. I think that the 5 watts is such a low charging rate that there is little fear of an over charged situation. I use a 3 watt on my RV vehicle battery as well; and have used that on the dash board for over two years with no problem. I think it would be the same for the 5 watt. I do however have a 40 watt solar charger that I use when camping and it has a controller (regulator). I think it is too large not to use something to control the charge to prevent over charging. I hope that helps!! Not sure about "regulation". I use it as a roof mount on my RV to keep the house batteries charged. I think that the 5 watts is such a low charging rate that there is little fear of an over charged situation. I use a 3 watt on my RV vehicle battery as well; and have used that on the dash board for over two years with no problem. I think it would be the same for the 5 watt. I do however have a 40 watt solar charger that I use when camping and it has a controller (regulator). I think it is too large not to use something to control the charge to prevent over charging. I... » Read More Not sure about "regulation". I use it as a roof mount on my RV to keep the house batteries charged. I think that the 5 watts is such a low charging rate that there is little fear of an over charged situation. I use a 3 watt on my RV vehicle battery as well; and have used that on the dash board for over two years with no problem. I think it would be the same for the 5 watt. I do however have a 40 watt solar charger that I use when camping and it has a controller (regulator). I think it is too large not to use something to control the charge to prevent over charging. I hope that helps!! « Show Less
1706976
I currently have a Morningstar TSMPPT60 to charge my battery bank. I previously had another charge controller that was also MPPT but it was not very efficient. I am using x2 gauge wiring on both the - and + input to the inverter.
1873944
I think you need to check your controller specs, but I know some controllers may just shut off to prevent damage. Also note these panels are higher voltage which may not be compatible with your controller. I bought a charge controller that won't work with these because the voltage may go up to 45V on these panels. Now I run two of these with the Morningstar MPPT 45A charge controller. Morningstar has a calculator on their site that will confirm whether a planned setup will work with their charge controllers or not. I am planning on adding one more panel to my setup. The 45A MPPT charge controller can handle 3 of these panels. Good luck!
1852677
If I understand your question correctly. your requirement is for a 400 watts solar input and if 408 watts of solar input is ok, I am assuming your question is for an off grid system (charging batteries). Question is if your your charge controller can accommodate additional 8 watts of input or ignore this additional watts without damaging any of the equipment. Please check the documentation of your equipment (charge controller) if it will work properly with the additional power provided by the solar panels. Normally additional power provided by the solar panels is ignored, one should make sure that electrical specs are matched with the solar input with the charger such as input voltage 24v panel and 24v charge controller input. Output from the charge controller should be matched with the battery voltage such as 24v solar panel, 24v charger and 24v battery, if different use an MPPT charge controller which can accept higher voltage from the solar panel and charge a lower voltage battery such as 24v panel, MPPT charge controller and 12v battery. Hope I have answered the question.
412102
Yes, that's true ~. 2x30watt panels = 60 watts going to your controller. Good luck & have fun capturing the Sun. :-)
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.
693461
I've heard that the controller that comes in this kit only handles a max of 60 watts. The excess is bled off. But if you get two kits and connect the two panels together, you could attach a higher wattage controller to the system. Then just use your two kit controllers as portable power sources that can be hooked up to any auto battery.
1947250
I have not tried loading the inverter at its full 600W, but have connected one intended for 12V panels (I think expecting 10 to 30 volts) to a 24 volt system battery... which ran it very fast and hot, but it complained and shut down when the voltage got too much for it, cooling off and ran again. Unless you do have cold and very sunny conditions, the peak loading is never for very long, and I have never had the full output from them. I'm surprised to see other reviewers with bad experiences. I would believe the protection circuits they use.
243759
I used this panel to keep the batteries charged for my gate opener. If you use this make sure you cover it to block the sun until after everything is connected. IE: Load controller and the load, batteries also if you are charging them. This panel puts out around 28V so it will fry anything that is not going through the controller. I charged to motorcycle size batteries, 24V kept them charged. Am going to use it now to keep the batteries charged on my Quads, I will reset the charge controller to use 12V instead of 24V Great little trickle charger and it will maintain your battery, Not meant to recharge the battery just maintenance. I used this panel to keep the batteries charged for my gate opener. If you use this make sure you cover it to block the sun until after everything is connected. IE: Load controller and the load, batteries also if you are charging them. This panel puts out around 28V so it will fry anything that is not going through the controller. I charged to motorcycle size batteries, 24V kept them charged. Am going to use it now to keep the batteries charged on my Quads, I will reset the charge controller to use 12V instead of 24V Great little trickle charger and it will maintain your battery, Not meant... » Read More I used this panel to keep the batteries charged for my gate opener. If you use this make sure you cover it to block the sun until after everything is connected. IE: Load controller and the load, batteries also if you are charging them. This panel puts out around 28V so it will fry anything that is not going through the controller. I charged to motorcycle size batteries, 24V kept them charged. Am going to use it now to keep the batteries charged on my Quads, I will reset the charge controller to use 12V instead of 24V Great little trickle charger and it will maintain your battery, Not meant to recharge the battery just maintenance. « Show Less
991190
Yes, but beware, you probably want to charge more than just 1 battery, more like a small bank of batteries. For example, I have mine hooked up to a small bank of 8 SLA 12V batteries giving me about 1500 watts stored to power a 1200 W Inverter for appliances. It's like a solar powered battery pack so that I can work and have phone conversations in the most odd places (no generator noise in the background, just pure silence or nature noises, it's awesome). You'll want a decent charge controller (I bought a 10 Amp controller, which is overkill, but has the better charge-methods and pattern that I wanted). Good Luck! Yes, but beware, you probably want to charge more than just 1 battery, more like a small bank of batteries. For example, I have mine hooked up to a small bank of 8 SLA 12V batteries giving me about 1500 watts stored to power a 1200 W Inverter for appliances. It's like a solar powered battery pack so that I can work and have phone conversations in the most odd places (no generator noise in the background, just pure silence or nature noises, it's awesome). You'll want a decent charge controller (I bought a 10 Amp controller, which is overkill, but has the better charge-methods and pattern... » Read More Yes, but beware, you probably want to charge more than just 1 battery, more like a small bank of batteries. For example, I have mine hooked up to a small bank of 8 SLA 12V batteries giving me about 1500 watts stored to power a 1200 W Inverter for appliances. It's like a solar powered battery pack so that I can work and have phone conversations in the most odd places (no generator noise in the background, just pure silence or nature noises, it's awesome). You'll want a decent charge controller (I bought a 10 Amp controller, which is overkill, but has the better charge-methods and pattern that I wanted). Good Luck! « Show Less
1839260
The grid tie hooks directly to solar panels, you do not want to go through a charge controller nor do you want to hook to a battery bank. Using this small inverter I am assuming you have a twelve volt system, make sure you do not exceed the 250 wattage or you will fry the inverter For a little more money you can get a 500 or 600 watt inverter, I have 6 600 watt inverters that have been working great for over a year. I have 3 185 watt panels for a total of 545 watts on each 600 watt inverter, It is best to stay a little under what the inverter can handle
168480
we bought that kit the inverterwas too small for what we needed to do we bought the 6000 it does a great job we are running for 100 watt solar panel 6 /6 volt batterywe run it from 12 o'clock in the afternoon 2 ,1 o'clock in the morning then we lost power we are living in a 40 foot trailer we plan on adding a 900 wind generator and 6 more batteries that should do the trick but the 1500 watt inverter just wasn't enough hope this was help
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
1283048
A 30A Charge controller WILL be adequate and will work but it is a narrow margin for your 145 watt panels. I estimated the amperage on your panels @ 7.25 amps each, that put you right at 29 amps. Barring any solar fluxes that might tip the controller to temp shut down you should be ok.