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diy solar

360w panel too much for 100ah battery ?

jtjager

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Dec 14, 2019
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I built Will's 400w mobile system as an intro into solar and it worked great with 2 100ah agm batteries running most of my home electricity as an experiment for a camping rig. I have now purchased a pop up truck camper and space is extremely limited with really only room for one battery. Wanting to use the equipment I have my question, is a 360w panel with only 100ah battery too much and will it degrade the battery life ? Will be running epever 4125 tracer mppt and right now have renogy 100ah agm with thoughts to upgrade to a Battle Born in the next year or so. The heater fan drains the battery quite quick as does the vent fan after a long cold night and trying to stay away from shore power. Thanks for any info
 
will it degrade the battery life ?
No. Your charge controller will manage the charging. 360/12 = 20 amp max charging from your setup.

You should be VERY solar rich when the sun is shining, a good time to top off charging computers, phones
and even crank up the fridge (if electric).
 
The only issue is if you dont have enough battery storage for evening usage.
The panel should handle daylight usage, and keep the battery full.
You have about 2160Wh from the panel, and 1300Wh storage in the battery, so, if you drain the battery overnight, 2160Wh will not be enough to refill and still operate during day demands.
More solar wouldn't hurt.
 
Wait, AGM cell, so only about 650Wh in the cell... assuming you stay within the 50%DOD requirements of the battery.
If that provides for your evening needs, the solar should be plenty to recover, and provide daylight demands.
 
No. Your charge controller will manage the charging. 360/12 = 20 amp max charging from your setup.
Lead-acid batteries, including AGM, typically have a C/10 maximum charge rating (but check you specs!) for a 100AH battery, that's only 10A. Charging at 20A will likely prematurely age your battery. If you have the ability, configure the max charge rate of your MPPT to whatever the max charge rate of your battery is.

I have 2 x 110AH AGMs with a higher than normal max charge rate of C/5, my mains charger and MPPT can both output 50A, but I have to restrict them both and in combination to 44A (2 x 110AH = 220AH / 5 = 44A).

Edit: Formatting
 
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