Do I Need A Charge Controller For Solar Panel

Do i need a solar charge controller.

Do i need a charge controller for solar panel.

A solar charge controller is designed to receive power from a solar panel or array of panels and use it to charge a battery or bank of batteries. I get asked this question quite often and the answer is almost always a resounding yes. In general you do not require a charge controller that usually requires the minimum maintenance or drop charge panels including but never limited to the one to five watt panels. Keep in mind that you don t need one when the panel releases less than or equal to two watts for every fifty battery amp hours.

For further reading mppt pdf. This means if your battery is full it stops the charging and if your battery is reaching an unhealthy. Last summer i finally had the opportunity to set this up for demonstration with a small 12w solar panel and two different battery banks. It does this by using a transistor to shunt the pv charging circuit.

Since this is larger than 200 you do not need a charge controller. If you have a five watt panel in the above example you take 100 divided by 3 300ma and you come up with 333 3. The charge process is performed in a smart or intelligent way. Since this is less than 200 you need a charge controller.

How to select a solar charge controller what size of solar charge controller do i need. There are always caveats to everything however. However you still need a blocking diode to prevent the battery from discharging to the panel at night.