Solar PV charge controllers

[Jon Miller]

Hi all,

My plan:

I am planing on installing a 65 watt panel onto my van and am interested in others experience with different charge controllers.

My planed set up:

I have a 12 volt 65 watt panel and will be wanting to charge a 240 amp hour 12 volt battery bank made up of 10 x 24 amp hour 12 volt SLA gel batteries.  These batteries will be charged from the van on a spilt charge relay and maybe the same controller as the panel, or maybe another controller when driving.  My plan is to allow the panel to charge the batteries the rest of the time say when parked up at a camp site.

Questions:

What is the best charge controller i could use for such a set up?

Is there a charge controller that will deal with a panel and a second input from a 12 volt alternator?

What experience have you or others you know had with such controllers?

Of course cost will come into this, but worth the money overall?

Thanks for your input

Jonathan

[AbyssUnderground]

I personally don't see why you can't use the same controller as the solar as long as it doesnt try to pull current over its maximum limit. With you having such a high Ah capacity then its likely it will draw a fair amount so a larger rating charge controller will be necessary if you decide to do it this way.

[Hank]

I would imagine an inexpensive solar charge controler rated for about 7 amps should serve you well with that solar panel (panel will only put out about 4 amps). Having another charging source such as your alternator will not have any effect on this.

Basically when your battery voltage gets up to about 13.6 volts, from any source, the charge controller will disconnect your solar panels.

[ghurd]

SS-6