Hi there, I am a complete newcomer to solar power so please forgive my ignorance! I am having some problems getting things going as I had expected and wondered if anyone could be of help.
I have recently purchased a 100W 12V panel and a 22Ah 12V battery. I have the panel connected to the battery through a PWM charge controller (the cheap blue Anself 10A one available on Amazon) and all appears to be fine, controller reads battery voltage (11.9V) and implies that it is charging the battery when the panel is in sunlight. However it seems to be taking an age to charge the battery, in fact after more than 1 week albeit in grey UK weather conditions but without any load it has not gained as much as 0.1V so I am suspicious something is not working right. I noticed that the open circuit voltage and current direct from the panel is approximately 20V and 1A respectively (I assume this to be normal for a sunny winter day in the UK). However when I measure what is being supplied to the battery I see that it is only just over the present battery voltage (approx 12V) but worse the current is less than <0.1A. So my question is where has all the power gone? I was suspecting at very least my battery would be charged at 1A and ideally higher (due to the change in voltage). Are PWM controllers really that inefficient, could something be faulty? or am I simply being stupid and this is normal? I had hoped I had overspec'd my panel enough to provide power to a small security camera even through the winter in the UK but at this rate i;ll be charging the battery myself every few days! I have charged the battery via the mains to test the battery and although I couldn't seem to fully charge it it does seem to comfortably hold steady around 12.4V. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
I have recently purchased a 100W 12V panel and a 22Ah 12V battery. I have the panel connected to the battery through a PWM charge controller (the cheap blue Anself 10A one available on Amazon) and all appears to be fine, controller reads battery voltage (11.9V) and implies that it is charging the battery when the panel is in sunlight. However it seems to be taking an age to charge the battery, in fact after more than 1 week albeit in grey UK weather conditions but without any load it has not gained as much as 0.1V so I am suspicious something is not working right. I noticed that the open circuit voltage and current direct from the panel is approximately 20V and 1A respectively (I assume this to be normal for a sunny winter day in the UK). However when I measure what is being supplied to the battery I see that it is only just over the present battery voltage (approx 12V) but worse the current is less than <0.1A. So my question is where has all the power gone? I was suspecting at very least my battery would be charged at 1A and ideally higher (due to the change in voltage). Are PWM controllers really that inefficient, could something be faulty? or am I simply being stupid and this is normal? I had hoped I had overspec'd my panel enough to provide power to a small security camera even through the winter in the UK but at this rate i;ll be charging the battery myself every few days! I have charged the battery via the mains to test the battery and although I couldn't seem to fully charge it it does seem to comfortably hold steady around 12.4V. Any help and advice would be much appreciated.
Comment