Does A 10w Solar Panel Need A Regulator

A 12v battery needs at least 13 6 volts to charge therefore under worst case conditions a solar panel needs to output at least 13 6 volts.

Does a 10w solar panel need a regulator. Sadly there is a lot of information out there suggesting that a solar panel of 10 of ah capacity in wattage 10w panel for a 100ah battery or 1 5 of ah capacity in amperage 1 5a panel for a 100ah battery does not need a charge controller. Likewise if i took that same solar panel in miami fl installed it at a 25 degree tilt i d have an annual average of 5 2 sun hours. The panels need to provide some extra voltage so that when the sun is low in the sky or you have heavy haze cloud cover or high temperatures you still get some output from the panel. 12v nominal solar panels have voltages from 16v to 18 v.

Again assuming a fully depleted battery you would need 20 amps average charging current 100 ah 5 hours. A 12v solar panel is designed to output at least enough voltage to charge a 12v battery under worst case conditions low light level high temperature etc. The voltage acquired from a solar panel is never stable and varies drastically according to the position of the sun and intensity of the sun rays and of course on the degree of incidence over the solar panel. We already saw a 12w panel producing as much as 0 72a and pushing a 220ah agm bank to over 15v.

A fully charged 12 volt battery is around 12 7 volts at rest around 13 6 to 14 4 under charge so the panel has to put out at least that much under worst. Why do i need a regulator. If you are connecting a large number of panels in series creating a high voltage take special care to ensure that this is within the mppt s maximum input voltage window. So i can look at the charts to see if i have a 100w solar panel in portland me installed at about 45 degrees angle on annual average i d get 4 6 sun hours a day.

Even with a small panel if the bank is left on charge for multiple days or weeks at a. The purpose of the box is to regulate the amount of charge going from the panel that flows into the deep cycle battery bank. Even a diminutive 10w solar panel can produce about 0 59 0 6a in good sun. Now on the voltage of the panel you need a panel capable of up to 14 5 volts to fully charge the battery even when it starts charging at.

Why do we need a solar regulator. Simply touch the solar panel leads with the multi meter probes matching their corresponding polarity red to red black to black. Open circuit voltage can vary depending on your solar panel but the readings we are usually looking for are in the range of 15 to 23v.