Needing Advice On 30v to 12v Solar Charger

[rino]

The situation on hand is currently we have two rather large solar panels that were given to us from a friend. We would like to mount and wire these on our enclosed trailer to maintain two 12v batteries used for camping at shows and events. I'm not familiar with these panels and was looking to see if anyone has any experience running these to a controller that will output 12v. Any help is appreciated!

Panel 1: BP Solar BP3225T

Panel 2:

Connectors:

 

[Chris Boyd]

Get an MPPT solar controller. Morningstar is my preference. You'll likely have to swap out the connectors or just hard wire them to the controller if you just have the two.


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[4x4junkie]

×3, MPPT is actually required to make much of those panels.

Indeed Morningstar makes excellent controllers. Their TriStar MPPT 45 amp unit looks like it would work well with those panels:
http://www.amazon.com/Morningstar-TS-MPPT-45-TriStar-Charge-Controller/dp/B007NMUM2E

This controller should work also and is a lot cheaper, though I'm not familiar with it's quality (I know Renogy panels are fairly popular):
http://www.amazon.com/Renogy-Tracer-Charge-Controller-100VDC/dp/B00E7NI9PE

Those two panels' ratings are similar enough you should be able to connect them parallel no problem.

 

[IdaSHO]

Get an MPPT solar controller. Morningstar is my preference. You'll likely have to swap out the connectors or just hard wire them to the controller if you just have the two.


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Those connectors are standard MC4 connectors, probably with 14G conductors.

unless you are intending to swap them out for a large conductor, there is no need to modify anything.


Just buy a few more MC4 connectors to build your own harness on the vehicle/camper side in order to make it plug and play

 

[IdaSHO]

Your right.

I didnt look THAT close.


No worries though. Just two more ends to change to MC4:ylsmoke:

 

[jonyjoe101]

it depends how much power you need and if your batteries are similar. If the batteries are not similar you wont be able to parallel them, the cheap way is to get 2x 20 dollar wincong 20 amp pwm solar charge controller and connect each panel separately to each battery. With pwm you will get about 7 amps of power from each panel.

If you want maximun power, get 2 x 100 dollar ecoworthy 20 amp mppt controllers and hook them up to each battery. With mppt you get about 12 amps from each panel.

The more expensive mppt controller like the midnight kid 30 amp, will let you connect your 2 panels in series because it can handle a max of 150 volts. But thats a 400 dollar controller.

myself I would just get 2x ecoworthy mppt controllers. Its what I been using on my 240 watt 36 volt panel for 3 years. If your panels where the same brand/wattage than it might make sense to connect them together(series). I hear different responses concerning connecting different panels in series so unsure if there are limits or disadvantages.