Community Forums

Bondad · 12-17-2012, 03:53 PM

My 1999 Winnebago came with a decent sized solar panel on the roof that was directly connected to one of the two 12v batteries. There was no power controller / regulator and about 20 feet of extra cable wound up and tucked under a drawer.

I added a power controller / regulator and cut out all the slack wire. My question is, does hooking it to one of the batteries (wired in parallel) charge BOTH batteries?

These are each 12 volt crappy marine / deep cycle batteries that will be replaced with 6 volt GC batteries when they bite the dust. They came with the RV when we bought it and the first thing I said when I looked at the batteries was "crap"

. Seller didn't know what I was complaining about.

Spikester · 12-17-2012, 05:35 PM

Yes both batteries will get charged. Trimming the excess wire will also help make the solar panel system more efficient. With solar it is all about line loses. Another thing to help may be to increase the size of the wire from the solar panel to charge controller and controller to batteries. 8 guage is about the smallest wire you should use, the larger the wire size the more efficient your system will be.

Spike

elkhornsun · 12-18-2012, 01:05 AM

Be sure to use identical batteries when you do replace them and if one fails and the other seems to still be OK it is a good idea to replace them both if you want the charge controller to work at its best.

Does not hurt to add something like the Tri-Metric charge monitor if you do not already have something like this in place. It will give you an accurate charge status for your batteries and make it easier to monitor the panels' charging and your consumption of the available charge on a day to day basis.

clyon51 · 12-18-2012, 08:09 AM

What are you considering 'a decent size panel"? Do you know the output wattage?

Generally you don't need a controller until you reach 50w. If this unit didn't come with one, then it could be one of those 10 - 20 watt panels which is only good to maintain a battery in storge with plenty of sun. Yes, if your 2 12v coach batteries are wired in parallel, connecting to one will maintain both.

Ed-Sommers · 12-19-2012, 11:33 AM

clyon51 is correct, but I always used 35 watts to proclaim the panel to be "self regulating" because they were/are too small to push enough volts/amps to do any damage to a battery.

Ed