Newbie needing help picking charge controller

[Cfarley921]

First thank you for allowing me into the forum Ive seen some great info. I have a 350 sq ft cabin I went with the renogy 2- 100 watt panels and I have 2 deep cycle marine batteries. The charge controller went bad that came with the kit. ( wadeers 30 a) what would you suggest I get to replace. Right now I power 5 led 2 watt lights and a tv and a 12 volt water pump. Also with my set up what should I expect time wise if I ran the tv non stop with those 2 batts and 2 panels? Once again thank you so much.

[Sunking]

To get the most power possible you will need a MPPT Charge Controller and wiring your 2 panels in series. If you plan to stay at 200 watts of panels I would use a Morningstar Sunsaver 15 amp controller. At 15 amps can support up to a 180 AH battery if you live south of I40. No one can answer what your panels and batteries can support because we do not know the location, if there are any shade issues, tilt angle, and orientation.

Under ideal conditions which you do not have unless you live in the desert of AZ around Tuscon with no shade from sunrise to sunset around 500-600 watt hours per day. Real conditions significantly less of 200 to 300 wh. About 2 to 5-cents worth of electricity per day.

With 2 batteries, depending on their size, I doubt you have enough panel wattage to support 2 batteries. with 200 watts of panels with a MPPT controller 180 AH maximum. With PWM controller you had 100 AH maximum.

[Cfarley921]

Sir,

thank u so much for your help.i will check into the controller ASAP. Here is my other question if u have the time. I have a ranch hand that I am going to let stay in the cabin. Single guy only likes tv and txting. Would u suggest I get more panels? To supply the two batt or get more of both? Would I need to go to a diff controller then? I would just like home to be able to be comfy when he

[Sunking]

You are welcome.

Hard question to answer without more details. Answer a few questions so we can help you.

• How many watt hours per day? look and see how many watts the TV uses. Example let's say it uses 40 watts. He watches TV 4 hours per day. Then ; WATT HOURS = WATTS X HOURS
• Where is the site at? Nearest city.
• Are the panels located where they receive sun from sunrise to sunset without any shade. you need to have clear view of the horizon to the West, East, and South.

What I can tell you is with 200 watts of power and a 15 amp controller, is the maximum the controller can handle. Here is a rule of thumb you can use for a 12 volt battery system.

For every 100 watts of panels requires 8 amps of MPPT Charge Controller, and 60 to 80 AH of battery capacity.

What I would do if I were you is start by looking at the batteries you have now. They have an AH rating. Example if they are say 12 volt 100 AH batteries wired in parallel then you have 200 AH. That tells you need 300 watts of solar panels and a 25 amp MPPT charge controller which should work providing this Ranch Hand does not use a lot of power.

Almost forget the TEXTING part. If you mean a cell phone, the power required is insignificant and can be ignored. A beer fart has more energy than a cell phone.

[Cfarley921]

I had to pull off that project for a while. So I would like to add a third 100 watt panel and maybe a 4th in the future which mppt controller would you recommend?

[Sunking]

No prime numbers.

[Brian53713]

Victron mppt has longer warranty than anything else I've read of. Very fine product for a great price. Great technical support. Search this site for other comments on the victron equipment for more info. And to run a TV without an inverter, I've been told is possible and a lot of the TVs these days are DC 19 volt.

[Cfarley921]

Sunking can you please help me understand what your telling me?

[Sunking]

Sunking can you please help me understand what your telling me?

No prime number of panels except 1 and sometimes 3 if the MPPT CC has a high enough Voc rating. Prime numbers are 1, 3, 5. 7, 11........

With a prime number of panels only leaves you two possible panel configurations of all in Parallel and all in Series. Last thing you want with a MPPT controller is panels in parallel. You want the panels to be in series to the extent possible. How many you can put in series depends on the Panels Voc rating and the CC Voc input limit.