Do You Need A Regulator For A Solar Panel

So what does a regulator do.

Do you need a regulator for a solar panel. Do you need a charge controller. This involves varying charge stages voltages and current depending on the type of battery and other factors. Since this is larger than 200 you do not need a charge controller. As a general rule panels that produce less than 1 5 of a battery s rated capacity in amp hours don t require regulation.

Why do you need a solar charge controller. The solar charge regulator features three led indicators high voltage low voltage charging and three connections for the solar panel keyed two pin connector battery keyed two pin connector and 12v output 3 in. The regulator does this by simply disconnecting the solar panels from the battery. In conclusion a solar panel regulator is just a switch that regulates the current and voltage coming going into the battery from the solar panel.

Choosing the right solar charge controller regulator. Put simply solar voltage regulators do this by basically disconnecting the solar panels from the battery. It regulates the current flowing from the solar panel into the battery bank to avoid overcharging the batteries. If we were to look at the job description of any solar regulator the first item and in some cases the only function is to prevent the battery bank from being over charged.

The charge process is performed in a smart or intelligent way. However you still need a blocking diode to prevent the battery from discharging to the panel at night. If you have a five watt panel in the above example you take 100 divided by 3 300ma and you come up with 333 3. This means that a 1 5a panel is the largest you should use without a regulator on a 100 amp hour battery.

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. 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. 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. Selecting a solar regulator.

A solar charge controller frequently called regulator is similar to a regular battery charger i e. So at a really basic level the regulator is just a switch. A solar charge controller is designed to receive power from a solar panel or array of panels and use it to charge a battery or bank of batteries. See all solar charge controllers.