Hey everyone, just had a quick question about a small tent / camping system I'm going to use for a week during an event I'm attending (primitive camping only, limited gen usage though I plan on using my EF100is to recharge in emergency / before dark.)
My basic (BUDGET) system (modified slightly from earlier ideas) is 2x 6v 215ah golf cart batteries, 100w panel, and an inverter ~1500w cont. (for future expansion). This will be totally fine for LED lights, two laptops, and cell phone recharging every night.
I was initially going to use two marine batteries (G 27s) buy $/ah is way better for the golf cart batteries - even with a budget system I can't deal with the efficiency and durability differences.. it's worth the $$$ easily. So that's great, but now my 215AH is overkill for my 100w panel to say the least, but hey if I get a cloudy day I can use that extra 80AH over the marine batts on the second night, gen to recharge later.
I DO however have a 12w mono panel sitting around, theoretically it'd add 10% to the system, but I don't know if it's actually possible.
I'd obviously have to combine panels in parallel but the Vmp of the 12w is 17.2 and the 100w will be around 18.4, let's say I pull down the big panel to 17.2v (~7%) now we're talking about 93w, plus 12w means total I'm at roughly 105w? Which isn't really worth the trouble.
I guess my other option is to use the little charge controller I have for the 12w panel, and attach that to the bank in parallel with the new charge controller I get for the 100w panel. I'm concerned about the controllers "checking" the voltage and instead of seeing battery voltage they'll see the charge voltage from the other controller, which I'm assuming would render them unable to decide when to switch between bulk/float charge etc.
Should I just leave the 12w one behind? I have it so it's obviously tempting to put it to use, I'm just not sure I can though.
Thanks guys!
My basic (BUDGET) system (modified slightly from earlier ideas) is 2x 6v 215ah golf cart batteries, 100w panel, and an inverter ~1500w cont. (for future expansion). This will be totally fine for LED lights, two laptops, and cell phone recharging every night.
I was initially going to use two marine batteries (G 27s) buy $/ah is way better for the golf cart batteries - even with a budget system I can't deal with the efficiency and durability differences.. it's worth the $$$ easily. So that's great, but now my 215AH is overkill for my 100w panel to say the least, but hey if I get a cloudy day I can use that extra 80AH over the marine batts on the second night, gen to recharge later.
I DO however have a 12w mono panel sitting around, theoretically it'd add 10% to the system, but I don't know if it's actually possible.
I'd obviously have to combine panels in parallel but the Vmp of the 12w is 17.2 and the 100w will be around 18.4, let's say I pull down the big panel to 17.2v (~7%) now we're talking about 93w, plus 12w means total I'm at roughly 105w? Which isn't really worth the trouble.
I guess my other option is to use the little charge controller I have for the 12w panel, and attach that to the bank in parallel with the new charge controller I get for the 100w panel. I'm concerned about the controllers "checking" the voltage and instead of seeing battery voltage they'll see the charge voltage from the other controller, which I'm assuming would render them unable to decide when to switch between bulk/float charge etc.
Should I just leave the 12w one behind? I have it so it's obviously tempting to put it to use, I'm just not sure I can though.
Thanks guys!
Comment