I’ve got a pretty simple solar system at my cabin with 60v 240w solar, an mppt (I think 20-30 amp limit) and about 100ah 12v lead acid batteries.. We only run led lights, maybe 50w worth if every light is on.
Through a confluence of unfortunate timing the panels are pretty inaccessible and getting too much shade this winter. Cabin is in a heavily tall forested location, who would have thought 60 feet up a tree facing downhill and still getting shade. Anyways, on top of that with covid the cabin is getting more use than normal and the battery bank is not getting a full charge anymore. It used to have the chance to charge up between weekends but now maybe only gets 2-3 days to recover with no load. This is all to say, I know, fix the crap that’s wrong with the system.. maybe next summer.
We can run a generator to power a 10amp charger but that is a pain in the butt, not to mention wildly inefficient. And loud. I’d rather use a headlamp at that point!
Meanwhile, I have a big triangle 1.3kwh and a mighty mini 300wh 52v battery for my ebike, and 300wh 36v battery in 100wh bricks for my wife’s bike. So I’d love to be able to top up the cabin batteries with any or all of my nice light ebike batteries.. everything has to be hiked in up the mountain. I don’t want to spend much on this because I expect to just do it this winter so a 48v inverter to power the 10amp pro sport marine charger isn’t what I have in mind.
I got to thinking about how similar the solar panel voltage is to my 52v battery. I wonder if there is a way to basically swap out the leads from the solar panels for the leads from my 52v battery.. I imagine a direct connection would blow the crap out of my mppt controller since the battery would be capable of absurdly more amps than my meagre solar panels. Or would it?
Or should I just suck it up and spend a bit on buck converter? I’ve never used one before so not sure how to size it though.
Cheers!
Through a confluence of unfortunate timing the panels are pretty inaccessible and getting too much shade this winter. Cabin is in a heavily tall forested location, who would have thought 60 feet up a tree facing downhill and still getting shade. Anyways, on top of that with covid the cabin is getting more use than normal and the battery bank is not getting a full charge anymore. It used to have the chance to charge up between weekends but now maybe only gets 2-3 days to recover with no load. This is all to say, I know, fix the crap that’s wrong with the system.. maybe next summer.
We can run a generator to power a 10amp charger but that is a pain in the butt, not to mention wildly inefficient. And loud. I’d rather use a headlamp at that point!
Meanwhile, I have a big triangle 1.3kwh and a mighty mini 300wh 52v battery for my ebike, and 300wh 36v battery in 100wh bricks for my wife’s bike. So I’d love to be able to top up the cabin batteries with any or all of my nice light ebike batteries.. everything has to be hiked in up the mountain. I don’t want to spend much on this because I expect to just do it this winter so a 48v inverter to power the 10amp pro sport marine charger isn’t what I have in mind.
I got to thinking about how similar the solar panel voltage is to my 52v battery. I wonder if there is a way to basically swap out the leads from the solar panels for the leads from my 52v battery.. I imagine a direct connection would blow the crap out of my mppt controller since the battery would be capable of absurdly more amps than my meagre solar panels. Or would it?
Or should I just suck it up and spend a bit on buck converter? I’ve never used one before so not sure how to size it though.
Cheers!