solar panels

[Ramblin Ron]

I'm about to buy the solar panels and all the goodies that go with it. Question..from anyones experience should i just hook up the panals to the coach batteries or.........

Where I camp..some of the time..a generator cant be run and i might have to go 5 or 6 days with no recharge..

Any ideas?

[The Newell]

Hi Ron,

You can hook-up solar panels to as many battery banks as needed. The solar panels are connected in a series / parallel configurations as follows, for 12V you connect all the 12V panels in parallel, for 24V you connect 2- 12V panels in series = 24V, for more current output you would then connect additional 12V series pairs, in parallel.

The Panels should be fused and the combined outputs connected to regulators, 1 regulator output servicing each battery bank.

Regulators insure that you do not over charge a battery bank and should be purchased in a size sufficient to handle the total wattage of the solar panel bank with an extra margin, the rule of thumb in electronics is 2-1/2 times the output for continuous duty. ( a bank of 4- 12V / 75W panels in series can produce 300W of 12V power (25 amps) and should be connected to a regulator that can handle a 700W short and about 400W continuous duty)

Additional regulators serving separate battery banks must also be rated at the full panel capacity.

Good quality regulators with multi stage charging will insure that no batteries are ever over charged.