Forums

canyon995

Having recently purchased a second hand motorhome with a Solara 50 amp solar panel already fitted I am confused on a few issues and would ask if anyone out there can help me out?

1, We have no operating instructions; the regulator box shows 2 light. green,solar batterie / full and red, solar module / charge.
If lights are on does this mean it is charging or full???

2, Initially our leisure batteries remained full, however they are now dropping power - we suspect the issue may lie with the panel and want to know how we can actually test this?

3,Would a faulty regulator cause the leisure batteries to discharge?

sallytrafic · Southern Rally Co-ordinator

A photo of your regulator might help jog someone's knowledge. I am not that familiar with small regulators.

BTW it will probably be a 50 Watt (not Amp) panel which may on its own be insufficient to charge your battery(ies).

A quick calculation on its likely maximum current means that you will get about 20-30 Ahr/day in southern UK in June. How big is your battery? How much dc power do you use?

See here for further help on Solar.

Chascass

1/ Yes, Green = Full. Red = Charging (My regulator is green and orange)

2/ Are you not using more power than the solar panel is producing?

3/ Do not know, but you could try covering the panel, and check between the panel and regulator for a current

Charlie

canyon995

Thanks for both your replies.

We will try covering the panel.
On the lights I think our confusion is that the red and the green can be lit at the same time? So if it is full would it still be charging?

Agree we probably use more power than panel producing when we are out and about, but initially panel did appear to keep leisure batteries topped up when parked up and not in use.
Now however after more than a week of unuse the batteries drop to 75% and can then suddenly drop from that overnight to empty?!? Hence our thought that panel may have faulty wiring and be causing the actual discahrge.

Will check batteries size - yes we are newbies so learning as we go so apologies for lack of knowledge!! Embarassed

erneboy

I suggest you disconnect the panel (on the panel side of the regulator) during bright weather and check there is a voltage coming out using a multimeter. Then reconnect to the regulator and disconnect on the output side of the regulator and see what the output is. If you have over 14v going in to the regulator and around 14 volts coming out to go to the batteries that is about right. You can monitor your battery condition using a multimeter, around 14v is fully charged and the regulator should sense this and stop putting out power. Hope this helps, Alan.