Free 29 Volt Panels Now What.....
- Thread starter mykill
- Start date
What time of the day will you be running everything? How many watts do the "devices" pull on average? How many hours are you planning on running each device per day on average? (Are you planning on running all devices for 5 hours each?) Looks like you will be creating a 24 Volt system. Are you planning on installing a 24V to 110V power inverter for AC power?
Haf-E
Expedition Leader
You don't have to use a 24vdc battery - just get a MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) charge controller that can convert the power from 29 volts down to 12vdc for the battery. I would recommend the company "morningstar" as they are reliable - but there are cheaper ones out there too.
Using one of these step down controllers can allow better performance early / late in the day and even if the panels are partially shaded. You might even be able to put the two panels in series - so it would then go down from 58v to 12v - but that would probably not work as well efficiency wise and may be more sensitive to shading.
470 watts is a lot of power when its sunny - you should do well with them - I'd go with at least 200 amp-hours of battery at 12vdc so there is enough storage to hold the power produced. But it depends on the loads running and if they will be using power during the daytime or night time (or both).
Using one of these step down controllers can allow better performance early / late in the day and even if the panels are partially shaded. You might even be able to put the two panels in series - so it would then go down from 58v to 12v - but that would probably not work as well efficiency wise and may be more sensitive to shading.
470 watts is a lot of power when its sunny - you should do well with them - I'd go with at least 200 amp-hours of battery at 12vdc so there is enough storage to hold the power produced. But it depends on the loads running and if they will be using power during the daytime or night time (or both).
mathers420
Observer
I just want to 2nd the vote for Morningstar MPPT controllers. We have one controlling the solar system in our Tacoma and another in our Neon trailer. They simply work well. The AGM auxiliary battery in the Tacoma appeared shot after several years with a different controller. After some research we decided to switch to the Morningstar MPPT and then replace the battery. The temperature compensated Morningstar actually recovered the battery (it wasn't charging fully in the winters with the old controller) and it's been three additional years now and we still haven't had to replace the old battery we thought was shot.
Howard