I have a 14 KW Kohler generator that just sucks its battery dry (I am off-grid). The controller in the generator pulls about 1 amp AC 24/7 and about 3 amps AC total when the charger is needed (if this was backup situation at a On-Grid residence the generator controller and battery would be kept afloat by the onshore utility until a power failure occurred). Of course I have the option of using my battery bank/inverter but I'm trying to avoid that. I like to keep my inverter in Safe mode until power is needed such as refrigerator cycling.
I have decided to try to bypass the charger in the generator and just use a couple of 100 watt solar panels to keep the battery charged in the generator. I have (1) 10 amp charge controller that I was going to use. The reason for 2 panels is that I only have sufficient light for about 4 hours and was hoping to get full amperage during those hours. I can't see where I would be putting out more than 10 amps at any time. However, Do I need a larger charge controller?
I guess my next question after all that info is will the panels equalize. I did hook both up but one was outputting about 19 volts and the other only 10 volts. That was surprising to me since they were within 5 feet of each other. I'm now wondering if one may be having trouble. The lower voltage one is new. Well to make a long story shorter, my generator battery was dead as a hammer at noon after an "all-nighter" with no charger and only solar panels supplying charge this morning. Too, the charger light was not even on when I arrived. That was interesting too.
As a test I took the new panel down and put directly in the sun light and only got around 10.5-11 volts output. The older one that is in indirect light was posting 19 volts.
Okay this is a lot of info. Any comments would be appreciated before I contact the Solar Panel vender.
Thanks,
Stephen
I have decided to try to bypass the charger in the generator and just use a couple of 100 watt solar panels to keep the battery charged in the generator. I have (1) 10 amp charge controller that I was going to use. The reason for 2 panels is that I only have sufficient light for about 4 hours and was hoping to get full amperage during those hours. I can't see where I would be putting out more than 10 amps at any time. However, Do I need a larger charge controller?
I guess my next question after all that info is will the panels equalize. I did hook both up but one was outputting about 19 volts and the other only 10 volts. That was surprising to me since they were within 5 feet of each other. I'm now wondering if one may be having trouble. The lower voltage one is new. Well to make a long story shorter, my generator battery was dead as a hammer at noon after an "all-nighter" with no charger and only solar panels supplying charge this morning. Too, the charger light was not even on when I arrived. That was interesting too.
As a test I took the new panel down and put directly in the sun light and only got around 10.5-11 volts output. The older one that is in indirect light was posting 19 volts.
Okay this is a lot of info. Any comments would be appreciated before I contact the Solar Panel vender.
Thanks,
Stephen
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