Looking for solar charge controller recommendations.
System
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My solar project is for a pop up camper
I am in the process of upgrading from a Coleman (ICP) 36 Watt system with the included ICP PWM charge controller to a 100 Watt system. (2-50 watt mono-crystalline panels)
I am searching for the right charge controller and would like some recommendations including the brand. At this moment I am considering a 10Amp MPPT style controller.
I am in the process of upgrading from a Coleman (ICP) 36 Watt system with the included ICP PWM charge controller to a 100 Watt system. (2-50 watt mono-crystalline panels)
I am searching for the right charge controller and would like some recommendations including the brand. At this moment I am considering a 10Amp MPPT style controller.
Comments
Your money is probably mis-spent on a MPPT controller for only 100 watts of PV. Who makes a 10 amp MPPT controller? For the price of a good MPPT controller, with only that amount of PV you might be way further ahead to get another panel.
Tony
The size of the panels is a function of the size of the camper and usage. 100 is the biggest that I will be going. I store the panels during transport of my pop up camper.
Take a look at my thrown together 36 watt system.
retrac-blog.blogspot.com
36 watts is small but it worked flawlessly this summer for a 2 week outing. I have purchased 2-watt panels to replace the ones I have. The overall array size will remain the same.
I don't understand, please explain.
The smallest MPPT controller that I know of is this:
http://www.solar-electric.com/mosumpsochco.html
This is probably the controller I would buy,
http://www.solar-electric.com/ss-6.html
100 watts of panel are likely to only put out ~4.5 amps into 12 vdc.
An extra ~$200 for the Morningstar MPPT controller is a lot to pay for a few more net amp hours.
PS The only 10 amp MPPT controllers that I see on line are off brands that no one here has ever heard of. Personally, I would steer clear of them and stick to the name brands, Morningstar, Xantrex, Rogue maybe Bluesky. (Outback and Midnight Solar don't make anything that small. You will notice on a number of other threads the misery that the off brand "BZ" controller has caused people.
Tony