Small system advice

[davedavedave]

I have two 50 watt panels (Siemens SM50) I purchased used years ago that have been just laying around that i would like to use to power some lights and maybe a fan in my 14ft camper. I have a Morningstar SunSaver-10 controller that i was plan on using to power the batteries. I thought i might build some brackets to attach the panels to the roof of my suv (I might end up buying a different camper, so i don't want to mount any panels to the roof of the camper yet). Anyway, can i just run wires from the panels to the +- terminals on the controller and then from the 12v +- battery connectors on the controller to the battery bank? I assume this will work, since the batteries are wired to the fuse box that is in the camper. Everything in the camper is DC, except the microwave and ac, but i have a generator i can use if i run those. Some of the places i plan on visiting might not have power hook ups, so it would be nice if i can keep my batteries charged.

[davedavedave]

	SM-55	SM-50
Nominal voltage	12V	12V
Maximum power (1)	55W	50W
Minimum power (2)	50W	45W
Current at the maximum power point	3,15A	3,05A
Voltage at the maximum power point	17,4V	16,6V
Maximum current (short circuit output)	3,45A	3,4A
Maximum voltage (open circuit)	21,7	21,4
Nominal working temperature	45ºC
Current temperature coefficient	+1.2mA/°C
Voltage temperature coefficient	-0.077 Volts/°C
Range of temperature variation	-40 a 85ºC
Relative humidity	85%
Maximum system voltage	1000V (ISPRA) 600V (UL1703)
Maximum pressure on the surface	2400N/m2
Maximum distortion (3)	1.2 degrees
Ice balls resistance (25 mm diameter)	23 m/s
Cells in series	36
Dimensions	1293 x 329 x 34 mm
Weight	5,5 kg

[sensij]

Those panels won't provide very much energy, but it may be better than nothing. Hooking it up as you've suggested sounds right, just make sure you keep the panels in parallel, not in series.

I would suggest connecting the battery to the controller first, then then panels.

[davedavedave]

Thanks for the quick response. I think if this works out for me i will invest in a few larger panels and a nicer charge controller.

[ewarnerusa]

You'll encounter voltage drop between the controller and the batteries, so you could be wasting quite a bit of solar harvest due to wire resistance. It will be better than nothing, though. Try to minimize the wire distance between the controller and batteries and use fat wiring.