Today I was looking over several RV solar forums for equipment installation tips. Found some good ideas and even learned more on shunt locations, Found a neat post where the person made full size cardboard and foam mock up and moved the placement around to get the best fit - everything was to scale and had the pictures of the parts on the mock ups. They must have been an engineer. I also ran across several set ups with multiple solar controllers tied to separate panel arrays that faced different directions.
So I searched on running two separate arrays with two separate controllers tied to one battery bank.
So I thought I would get your expert input here
I have and existing 160 watt Go Power solar panel through a GP-PWM-30 controller.. It covers all the battery types but Lithium. Battle Born said it would be fine set on AGM for their battery's, just not able to 100% charge. It has been doing fine so far with my 2 12v interstate deep cycle battery's (lead/acid)
As I posted before I just purchased 2 - 190 watt GP panels and a GP-PWM-30-UL which does have a lithium charge profile.
I was going to tie in all 3 panels in parallel through the new controller, but understand there would be a 20% loss in capacity due to the mix match in panels. This was discussed in a previous post.
I am now thinking to leave the existing controller and 160 watt panel alone and add the two new 190 watt panels through the new separate controller and tie to the battery's in parallel with the other controller. In this configuration the charging amperage add without loss - correct? One controller wold be set to AGM and the other to Lithium when I get my new battery's.
Would this be the better solution (separate panels and controllers) to maximize what I have. Makes install of the new panels fairly easy not having to mess with the existing wiring?
Thoughts on this?
Thanks
Keith
So I searched on running two separate arrays with two separate controllers tied to one battery bank.
So I thought I would get your expert input here
I have and existing 160 watt Go Power solar panel through a GP-PWM-30 controller.. It covers all the battery types but Lithium. Battle Born said it would be fine set on AGM for their battery's, just not able to 100% charge. It has been doing fine so far with my 2 12v interstate deep cycle battery's (lead/acid)
As I posted before I just purchased 2 - 190 watt GP panels and a GP-PWM-30-UL which does have a lithium charge profile.
I was going to tie in all 3 panels in parallel through the new controller, but understand there would be a 20% loss in capacity due to the mix match in panels. This was discussed in a previous post.
I am now thinking to leave the existing controller and 160 watt panel alone and add the two new 190 watt panels through the new separate controller and tie to the battery's in parallel with the other controller. In this configuration the charging amperage add without loss - correct? One controller wold be set to AGM and the other to Lithium when I get my new battery's.
Would this be the better solution (separate panels and controllers) to maximize what I have. Makes install of the new panels fairly easy not having to mess with the existing wiring?
Thoughts on this?
Thanks
Keith
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