i am experimenting with setting up a simple solar system to replace electric meter at entrance sign to home development.
Been successfully with an older pair of 40 watt panels that I got free plus a 10 watt LED flood that is adequate for sign. I added good charge controller from Renogy and am using a 12v 54AH AGM battery that I acquired for nothing. Actually have two of these batteries that were removed from service after 5+ years of use as battery backups or something. I have tried individual batteries and also have parallelled them to try that. Obviously I am not getting full charge on these since I run sign light each night. I also feel my 2 panels would be best replaced with an 80 to 100 watt modern panel (mine are probably 10 years old or so from a portable RV charging system).
With poor sunlight this time of year I am struggling to keep enough charge in batter(ies). I'm thinking I should get a new battery properly sized. Since I've read that an 80 watt panel under the best conditions can charge a 35AH battery in a day, is this the proper size battery I should buy? Question is... Is it better to have an oversized battery in AH or one that is correctly sized for panels and load?
Been successfully with an older pair of 40 watt panels that I got free plus a 10 watt LED flood that is adequate for sign. I added good charge controller from Renogy and am using a 12v 54AH AGM battery that I acquired for nothing. Actually have two of these batteries that were removed from service after 5+ years of use as battery backups or something. I have tried individual batteries and also have parallelled them to try that. Obviously I am not getting full charge on these since I run sign light each night. I also feel my 2 panels would be best replaced with an 80 to 100 watt modern panel (mine are probably 10 years old or so from a portable RV charging system).
With poor sunlight this time of year I am struggling to keep enough charge in batter(ies). I'm thinking I should get a new battery properly sized. Since I've read that an 80 watt panel under the best conditions can charge a 35AH battery in a day, is this the proper size battery I should buy? Question is... Is it better to have an oversized battery in AH or one that is correctly sized for panels and load?