Do I Need A Charge Controller For Solar Panel

It is a device which most importantly properly charges a battery or battery bank enabling as long a life as possible.

Do i need a charge controller for solar panel.

It regulates the voltage and current coming from the solar panels going to the battery. The safest way to figure out if you need a charge controller is to take battery amp hour capacity and divide this by the solar panel max. Anything beyond that and you do. If a panel puts out 2 watts or less for each 50 battery amp hours you probably don t need a charge controller.

A charge controller or charge regulator is basically a voltage and or current regulator to keep batteries from overcharging. It detects when to allow the maximum available charge that the solar panels can produce to be applied to the batteries and it also detects when the battery is fully charged and cuts off the charge supplied by the solar panels. Last summer i finally had the opportunity to set this up for demonstration with a small 12w solar panel and two different battery banks. I get asked this question quite often and the answer is almost always a resounding yes.

If the quotient is above 200 you don t need a controller. Do i need a solar charge controller. If the number is less than 200 than you need a controller. The charge process is performed in a smart or intelligent way.

There are always caveats to everything however. 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 example if you have a 100 amp hour battery and a 10 watt panel you take 100 and divide it by 6 600ma and you get 166 6. You don t need a charge controller with small 1 to 5 watt panels.

Most 12 volt panels put out about 16 to 20 volts so if there is no regulation the batteries will be damaged from overcharging. Not at all times but frequently.