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Why are solar charge controllers 12-48V, but everything else is voltage-specific?

Jimduchek

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Jul 23, 2022
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So my inverter is failing and so I'm using that as an excuse to move my battery bank from 12V to 24V. Have been curious about this for years and wondering if anybody knows the answer: Pretty much _every_ solar charge controller will work with 12-48V nominal... but there are _no_ inverters, 120/240V battery chargers, DC-DC converters (which is pretty much what a solar controller is), etc etc etc, literally anything else involved in the system, that isn't specific to 12, 24, 48V. Why is this? The easy answer is "it would be more expensive", sure, but then why aren't solar controllers that way too? There are a handful of cheap 12V-only, and some 12/24Vs, but most are 12-48V. A 24V or 48V _only_ charge controller does not exist, as far as I can tell.
 
Charging requires taking a higher voltage and limiting it to a lower voltage. That's fairly easy to do. Inverters have to take a lower voltage and boost it to a higher voltage. A lot harder to do. It would be very expensive to accommodate multiple voltage inputs.
 
Charging requires taking a higher voltage and limiting it to a lower voltage. That's fairly easy to do. Inverters have to take a lower voltage and boost it to a higher voltage. A lot harder to do. It would be very expensive to accommodate multiple voltage inputs.
Inverters specifically, I'll grant that. But take a look at DC-DC converters. You can buy a 48->12V converter. You can buy a 48->24V converter. Take 120VAC battery chargers. Would not be significantly more expensive to design one that charges nominal 12V-24V batteries. You can only buy 12V _or_ 24V _or_ 48V battery chargers, pretty much. My point is that it's weird that solar charge controllers, and ONLY solar charge controllers, almost invariably (by all manufacturers) support a 12V-48V range but almost _nothing_ else does.
 
I personally don't know of any solar charge controllers that support 12 to 48v. 12 and 24v, yes.
 
I personally don't know of any solar charge controllers that support 12 to 48v. 12 and 24v, yes.
??? With the exception of some of the smaller <40A controllers being 12-24V, and some of the _really_ huge ones being voltage-specific, almost every controller is 12-48V. Victron's entire line... Renogy's entire line... pretty much every Chinesium one on Amazon.
 
Just checked the victron website.
I guess that I never noticed it. lol
The only answer is supply and demand.
If it's not demanded, it won't be supplied.
 
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