Hello everyone. I am about to purchase more equipment for my planned solar setup for our van. I have 2 flexible solar panels (68 watts each). After reading many of the posts and blogs I plan on buying 2 MC3 cables with the male and female connectors, in line fuse holder, morningstar prostar 30pwm 30amp 12/24v charge controller, and a morningstar suresine 300w 115v 60hz inverter Does this seem ok? I still am not sure about the batteries. I know I need the AGM and Bob reccommended 2 6volt. What about the ah rating? 100ah ? I am on sensory overload on this solar stuff and any help would be greatly appreciated. I will probably order this stuff from Amazon except for the batteries. Thanks again!
solar setup
- Thread starter janncoo
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janncoo, I think everything you are doing sounds great!! It's good quality stuff that will last you a long time.
About the MC3 though. I know for sure that with MC4 connectors they all come with a male on one end and a female end on the other. You buy one twice as long as you need and cut it in half. The cut end gets stripped to go into the solar controller. I'm 90% sure it's the same with MC3s. You only need to buy one that is twice is long as you need to go from the panel to the controller then cut it in half.
Most 6 volt golf carts are 220 ah each, but when you wire them in series they become 12 volt. When the voltage goes up the amperage has to go down (Ohms law), so they are then 110 ah each or 220 ah for the pair. You don't need to understand any of that. Just know that for most golf carts a pair wired together to be 12 volt is 220 ah.
Most 12 volt batteries are around 90-110 ah each. When you put two together they just double the ah to 180-220 ah. Their advantage is that you can buy them one at a time as you can afford them. But you don't want too big a difference in age or condition between them though. The closer the better
Bob
Bob
About the MC3 though. I know for sure that with MC4 connectors they all come with a male on one end and a female end on the other. You buy one twice as long as you need and cut it in half. The cut end gets stripped to go into the solar controller. I'm 90% sure it's the same with MC3s. You only need to buy one that is twice is long as you need to go from the panel to the controller then cut it in half.
Most 6 volt golf carts are 220 ah each, but when you wire them in series they become 12 volt. When the voltage goes up the amperage has to go down (Ohms law), so they are then 110 ah each or 220 ah for the pair. You don't need to understand any of that. Just know that for most golf carts a pair wired together to be 12 volt is 220 ah.
Most 12 volt batteries are around 90-110 ah each. When you put two together they just double the ah to 180-220 ah. Their advantage is that you can buy them one at a time as you can afford them. But you don't want too big a difference in age or condition between them though. The closer the better
Bob
Bob
Oneleggedcowboy
Well-known member
Hello I too am new to solar. My question is can you have two different size 12 volt batteries connected together? I know if you have different ones in a diesel truck one will parasatize the other and cause one to go bad. I do not have solar yet, I have a small 1500 watt generator to recharge withh but am looking hard at a 100 watt Renology kit on Amazon. Thanks, Bill
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Hi Oneleggedcowboy, welcome to the forum! We're here to help yu in any way we can!
It is exactly the same thing in house batteries. If you have two different sized batteries in a bank the larger one will never be charged more than the smaller one. If you have a 100ah battery connected to a 50 ah battery, the larger battery is never going to be more charged more than 50% and will be wrecked very soon.
A 100 watt panel is a great start and even if it doesn't meet all you needs it will drastically reduce the amount of time you have to run the generator and that is a very good thing!
Bob
It is exactly the same thing in house batteries. If you have two different sized batteries in a bank the larger one will never be charged more than the smaller one. If you have a 100ah battery connected to a 50 ah battery, the larger battery is never going to be more charged more than 50% and will be wrecked very soon.
A 100 watt panel is a great start and even if it doesn't meet all you needs it will drastically reduce the amount of time you have to run the generator and that is a very good thing!
Bob
Oneleggedcowboy
Well-known member
Thanks Bob thats good info. For now I will keep the two batteries separate and swithch the inverter and charger back and forth so I get max out of each individual battery.
