Voltage regulator/charge controller help

[Earther]

Since this is my very first post and I've never written this to anyone online before I should start out this endeavour as so.

due to a chain of unfortunate events, I at age 34 have found myself living in a rented shipping container (14' X 6') for the last two months in what seems to be the seediest part of the metro area.

anyway since being here I have acquired a full on 3 and a half foot by 7 foot solar panel that came from a warehouses dumpster. The glass on it is shattered but seems to not have any negative effect whatsoever.

now as ghetto as possible I have some LEDs directly wired into the thing so during daylight hours I have light inside my sealed off shipping container which helps hide my living situation from others who may care.

I have also come across an assortment of SLA batteries. Out of the five I have only one will charge and hold a charge and that one is a 19ah sla.

now here's the question I have for you.

what controller do I get that's as cost effective as possible while suitably doing the job at hand.

I get a Max volt at peak hours around 56 volts. And I'm not sure buyer believe the open circuit watt Max is 1,000 or something I could be way off but that leads me to believe a 30 amp 12v controller is the way to go.

I look forward to being schooled and puns or anything funny in anyway even at my total cost is completely acceptable and I actually encourage such behaviour. If others smile at my expense then I think it's with it.

[Mike90250]

Welcome, and sad to hear about your circumstance

A 3x7 .solar PV panel is pretty unusual. Never heard of one, but apparently you have one of them, From the size of it, I'd guess it's capable of about 500 watts. And the 19ah battery only needs about 50w to maintain it properly, so you have a lot of headroom. (That large panel can quickly cook that small battery)
First, with that sort of voltage (56V) there will be a terrific mis-match to your 12v battery, so a MPPT style of charge controller would be required to get the most efficient use of power out of it. The 56v puts it into the "more than a toy" grade of controllers, so you need a controller able to handle that voltage. Morningstar Solar has 2 low end models that could work, their Sunsaver MPPT model or the new Prostar MPPT 25m http://www.morningstarcorp.com/products/prostar-mppt/ (about $400)

the battery does not have much storage capacity so running any sort of appliance, even a fan, would quickly flatten it, Best I can suggest is some RV LED lights.
Wiredco has a interesting variety of LED's some have internal drivers, some don't .https://www.wiredco.com/LED_Lighting...age_s/1874.htm

The 19ah battery, can store 228watt-hours when new, of which half are usable. (if you deeply discharge it, the lifetime quickly shortens) A 5w LED running for 6 hours would consume 30 watt hours.

It may make sense to buy a decent battery and fuse, since you have no idea how healthy the current used battery is,

[bcroe]

If the glass is shattered, my experience is the semiconductors will deteriorate over months to a useless state. If you
do invest in a system, be prepared to replace the panel next year. My guess is your panel has 6 X 12 cells, all 6
inches square. Around 300W peak. Bruce Roe