lonewolf2koc
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- Sep 13, 2015
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I have four 120 W semi flexible panels. Two permanently mounted on the roof top and two are in the windshield and will be taken out when the car is parked. The permanently mounted 120w semi flexible panels produce only 3-4 Amps max (out of a max possible of 12A)due to the limited position of the panels. It gets tedious to have to constantly unplug and plug the 30A solar controller to difference battery sources.
What I did was put two of them together. The 30A solar controller is outputting to both my 55 Ah x2 (parallel) and a new 170 AGM battery that's constantly providing source to the 12v thermocooler and sometimes a Dometic fridge. Sometimes I even Y connect to the minivan's starter battery. I figure it will only charge for about 4-6 hours max per day. All the batts are constantly loading 40-80 W of 12vdc power and not idling. What serious damage can it do for a short period of time? Plus the amp varies greatly due to fluctuating sunlight conditions. I'm seeing 4-12 Amps from 9am-4pm. The peak 12A output is from ~11:30-2 pm. Roughly 2.5 hours on a sunny day at 12 A.
My concern here is that when I put the Y SAE cable to both of the batteries, this is in away making a parallel connection between the two 55 aH that is already parallel wired and a stand-alone 170 Ah AGM batt. When doing this, I don't know how the batteries would even it out from sunrise to sunset. When sunset, I have to remove the Y sae cables on those two battery mismatch.
The 30A controllers are fairly cheap (about $30). I don't mind getting another one but simply have no space to mount it anywhere in the minivan. I noticed it really needs to be flush mounted on a wood board or something solid. Over days and weeks the wiring will get loose if it's not properly mounted. Multiple charge controller this will complicate wiring but it seems to be safer than a crude Y connector. Is there any solutions to distribute 12-15 Amps of the single combined solar output from the 4 panels to the batteries all at once or I have to get multiple charge controller and connect it to each specific battery?
What I did was put two of them together. The 30A solar controller is outputting to both my 55 Ah x2 (parallel) and a new 170 AGM battery that's constantly providing source to the 12v thermocooler and sometimes a Dometic fridge. Sometimes I even Y connect to the minivan's starter battery. I figure it will only charge for about 4-6 hours max per day. All the batts are constantly loading 40-80 W of 12vdc power and not idling. What serious damage can it do for a short period of time? Plus the amp varies greatly due to fluctuating sunlight conditions. I'm seeing 4-12 Amps from 9am-4pm. The peak 12A output is from ~11:30-2 pm. Roughly 2.5 hours on a sunny day at 12 A.
My concern here is that when I put the Y SAE cable to both of the batteries, this is in away making a parallel connection between the two 55 aH that is already parallel wired and a stand-alone 170 Ah AGM batt. When doing this, I don't know how the batteries would even it out from sunrise to sunset. When sunset, I have to remove the Y sae cables on those two battery mismatch.
The 30A controllers are fairly cheap (about $30). I don't mind getting another one but simply have no space to mount it anywhere in the minivan. I noticed it really needs to be flush mounted on a wood board or something solid. Over days and weeks the wiring will get loose if it's not properly mounted. Multiple charge controller this will complicate wiring but it seems to be safer than a crude Y connector. Is there any solutions to distribute 12-15 Amps of the single combined solar output from the 4 panels to the batteries all at once or I have to get multiple charge controller and connect it to each specific battery?
