Solar Panel

[Mr John]

I have a solar panel (approx. 24"X48") on my Aspect 26A. It was installed by previous owner at Camping World and hooked thru a controller then directly to the house batteries. The info I rec. in the Winnebago case when I bought the MH at LD tells me it is a 30 AMP, 123 Watt panel. My question is; will this panel overcharge the batteries? I just had to replace both house batteries because the first owner did not service them and they ran dry. The controller info says they will taper off as the batteries get a full charge. I am gun shy since I just laid out some money for new batteries. I've checked the house batts throughout the day and they never ran over 12.75 Volts before the sun went down. Clouds off and on this afternoon. Anybody have any input? Thanks, John

[450Donn]

I have two of them on my fiver and never had an issue. Depending on the charge controller it should control the battery voltage from a trickle to the full amp rating. Solar panels will only produce full voltage when angled to the sun. Any shade on the panel will drop the available power to almost nothing. Batteries do die. Heck I just replaced mine and it cost me nearly 500 dollars for the four of them.

[gcampbell]

Sounds like you are pretty much set for a solar battery maintainer. The only thing left is for you to understand the unit and how it works. Arizona Wind and Sun website has lots of educational information on this sort of thing. Will it also charge your starter battery? It shouldn't overcharge your batteries, thats what a charge controller is for.

[bigskymt]

30 Amps sounds like it refers to the max controller current. 123 watts probably describes the panel (8 amps).
12.75 volts seems low if you are measuring input to the batts. With 50% solar output you should be about 13.5 vdc

[w6pea]

On my class c I have three one hundred what panels. I also have a controller I do not see any way one panel will boil the battery's dry.

[Mr John]

Everything reads O.K. now. Apparently new batteries were not "full" when installed. Batteries read less than 13.5. After about 12 hours on the solar panel with no drain on the batts. they read 13.5 and controller shows that they are fully charged.
Thanks all for your input.

[ralper]

If lead/acid batteries are not brought up to 14.8 volts @ 78 deg. F and held there for a couple of hours then the batteries will never be fully charged. The voltage should vary with the temperature. If your controler is not doing this adjust it so it will or buy a good controler you can adjust. Solar is a trickle charge to the batteries (your panel puts out about 8 amps maximum) as compared to a conventional battery charger/converter that charges at the rate of 50 amps to 100 amps depending on it's rated size. With a good solar controler the batteries will never boil over or even lose much water.

You should have at least a #8 wire from panels to controler to batteries and the controler should be as close to the batteries as possible without being in the same compartment. This is a proper installation for your situation and will give you the maximum output available. In other words the whole output from your panel will reach the batteries if installed in this manner.