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Quote: Originally posted by 2004brianv on 24/2/2016

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I really get upset when people who have no idea of what they are on about give advice, this topic is like the blind leading the blind.

1)You can wire any amount of solar panels together of different wattages in to one regulator providing you keep within the regulators working load

2)You can charge 2 batteries of different ampage together from one regulator or battery charger without damaging either batteries, the batteries will charge at the same rate because the smaller battery will flow to the big one and vice versa until both become the same, one will not charge faster than the other, this is basic physics, it's how charging works.

Something for you to ponder, if you have 2 car batteries, one has 11 volt in it, the other has 13 volts in it, and you wire them both together in parallel what will happen, there will both end up with 12 volts each, because the larger capacity one will charge the smaller one till they become equal, and that's why you can charge batteries of different values together.
And almost forgot, a smaller panel will not pull the voltage from a big panel, complete and utter rubbish, that's why panels are fitted with blocking diodes to prevent that from happening and to stop them from draining your batteries at night.
Also never wire 2 regulators to the same battery, a regulator is looking for a voltage from the battery to know when it's charged, how can it do this if you have a voltage from another solar panel coming in an fooling it in to thinking it is charged, hence one regulator will cancel the other one out.
Posted by Brian, 35 years in the electrical, solar and electronics business.


Post last edited on 24/02/2016 23:31:03

Post last edited on 25/02/2016 00:08:59

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