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Anyone know how long it should in theory take an 80W panel on a 10A regulator to charge a 110ah leisure battery from fairly low to a good healthy high level?
It seems to be producing about 12.5V to 13V even when overcast. I fitted a digital voltmeter so I can see what I'm generating.
Andy.
Hi Andy,
There are a few variables to consider,the time of year,your location,weather conditions and time of day.
As a rough guide an 80 watt panel can produce a maximum of around 5 A/H in the UK.This is on a sunny day in mid summer with the sun high in the sky.If for example your 110A/H battery is at 50%(55A/H) SOC and the solar panel produces 30A/H per day then it will be fully charged in approximately 2 days.
Conversely in winter you will be lucky to get 0.5A/H out of the panel and a maximum of around 4A/H-5A/H per day so the leisure battery in a similar SOC(50%)will take 10-12 days to fully charge,assuming in both cases that the leisure battery is not being used.
With these figures it is evident that a separate source of charging is necessary in winter if your electric consumption is significant,solar power is excellent in summer but can't be relied upon in winter with the power required for TV,and the extra hours of lighting and heating.
A digital voltmeter will tell you the voltage from the solar panel but you need an ammeter to measure the output in amps,most regulators have this feature built in.
______________________________________________________________ cheers Steve
The panel cable and regulator came as a kit off, you guessed it Ebay! The brackets and cable gland also from ebay and the Sikaflex 221 from a company called Weekend leisure. Their shop is just a couple of miles from me here. Just copy and paste the item bumbers below into the ebay search thingy.
Panel etc, ebay item number- 260925804498
The mounting brackets also from ebay-110802960807
Cable Gland ebay -170750678191
Sikaflex from Weekend Leisure- Just Google them.
At the moment I am using the clips provided to attach it to the battery but will get some proper terminals from halfords or somewhere before going too far as I'm a bit worried they will jiggle off the battery terminals in transit.
I'm sorry I lied it was £166.83 in total! this was just about the cheapest option I could find after lots of searching.
The fitting was very simple really just followed all the lovely advice I found here!
Crikey how very complicated! I must try and not get too obsessed with all this and just know it's charging lots in the summer and not much in the winter. I suppose.
To be honest though I don't think we will be doing much winter traveling so should be fine and I hope it will be enough to keep the battery nicely charged over the winter months. Providing it's not too cold of course.
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