Any rating of solar panel can charge the battery the panel only has to be at higher voltage than your battery which can be tricky.
Solar panel to chare 120 amphour battery bank.
So if you have a solar panel that with a 10 watts power rating and it is exposed to sunlight for at least 6 hours.
Once we ve reached our desired voltage in our charging current additional amps result in a faster charge time.
This means that on that scenario the solar panel delivered 60 watts of power to charge the battery.
Any solar panel will only deliver its rated wattage output under ideal conditions so gauge your expectations accordingly.
Our battery bank has a 400 amp hour capacity and runs at 12 volts.
If our battery bank runs at 12 volts we want to recharge it with a current at or a little above that 12 volt rating.
Later on by using our second battery calculator you could define the number of solar batteries connected in series and parallel if you are using the solar batteries of low voltage to build the.
Again assuming a fully depleted battery you would need 20 amps average charging current 100 ah 5 hours.
Some quick rules for estimation.
The 200 watt panels in this kit can recharge a 200 amp hour battery bank from 50 percent to 100 percent charged during a typical day of rv driving in sunny conditions.
Take the power produced by the solar panels and divide by the voltage of the batteries.
Usually in off grid solar power systems the voltage of the battery bank is equal to the nominal voltage of the solar panels or solar panel array.
You can get the amount of energy it will provide the battery by multiplying 10 watts by 6 hours which will give you 60 wh.
Now on the voltage of the panel you need a panel capable of up to 14 5 volts to fully charge the battery even when it starts charging at.
Environmental factors will likely increase charge time.
The lithium batteries we use are purpose built for off grid solar and utilize a special lithium chemistry called lithium ferro phosphate lifepo4 commonly called lfp.
All we have to do is find the current through the controller by using power voltage x current.
Once you have sized your battery bank and solar panel array determining which charge controller to use is comparatively straight forward.
Because of the better efficiency and deeper discharge depth lithium battery banks tend to be only 50 60 of the size of a comparable lead acid bank.
The solar charge times above assume a 25 degree celsius day with the panel pointed directly at the sun.