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How to Choose the Right Components for Your Solar Power Battery System

Recharging batteries for a trolling motor, RV or even backwoods cabin is an efficient use of free, renewable energy from the sun. But charging times can vary greatly depending on a number of factors, including battery voltage rating, solar panel size and, of course, weather conditions. Before you choose your solar power battery system, we suggest you take a closer look at each component and how it will impact the time it takes to power your battery system.

Choosing Panel Size for Your Solar Battery System

Selecting the right size for your application comes down to determining the power you require versus the power the panel can deliver. Let’s say you want to power that backwoods cabin. A good place to start is to figure out your total electric consumption in a 24-hour period. The next step is to determine the total amount of direct sunlight your solar power system will receive. After you gather those numbers, you can take a look at our solar calculator to get a more exact determination of your power needs.

Benefits of a Solar Power System Controller

A simple way to avoid overcharging your solar panel batteries is to use controller. This component of your solar battery system essentially acts as an on-off switch, allowing power to pass through only when needed.

Another added benefit is that a controller can prevent battery discharge in low-light conditions. And when you’re relying on the power of the sun for charging, you’ll quickly see the advantage of a controller that keep what power your batteries have already accumulated.

For more information on solar power systems, check out our Knowledge Base article, Solar Info: The Down Low on Everything Up High.


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  • BatteryStuff Tech I would suggest reading our article called Solar Systems the Right Way. This will help you decide what is needed for the solar system you are trying to create. In general we stick to the smaller solar setups generally no more than 375 watts. Anything higher and we don’t have the proper solar charge controllers for such a setup.

    Reply  •  January 16, 2017 at 9:55 am
  • Byron Hello,

    I am needing to replace my battery system along with I am now adding solar to keep the batteries topped off. solar is not being used for any load. only used for when the boat is not being used.

    I presently have six Life 6 volt batteries at 220 AH each. On three of the batteries all three +‘s are wire together, all three -‘s are wire together and then every two are wires + to – I am assuming this is series-parallel which provides 666 total AH. I must have 12 volts for the vessel.

    My problem is that my 155 watt solar will not keep the batteries charged nor even when the batteries were new does the batteries did not provide enough usage and ran down with a couple hours when only running the lights on the inside of the vessel. can you sell me what I need to have a proper system.

    thank you
    Byron

    Reply  •  July 7, 2016 at 7:38 am
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