How To Keep A Solar Panel From Overcharging A Battery

If you want to get more efficient charge for your solar power you can use one of the many solar fed switch mode battery charger chips like the ti bq24650 this also gives you more flexibility for use of lifepo4 which is starting to replace lead acid.

How to keep a solar panel from overcharging a battery.

Connect the wires from the controller to the solar panel. The solar power generated by the solar panel is received by the solar charge controller. A cheap pwm controller will do this ok though they are less efficient for the charging process. Here i m using it to charge a 12 volt car battery as quickly as possible without overcharging.

Once you ve attached the input wires to the charge connector you should have 2 loose wires each ending in an mc4 connector. It safeguards the deep cycle batteries from being overcharged during the day. A solar controller with a battery temp sensor and adjustable setpoints will eventually pay for itself in battery life especially if one charges in areas with wild temperature extremes. A solar charge controller is a component that helps manage the power that is going into the battery store from the solar panel.

Using a solar controller limits the charging voltage to a safe 14 5v or so and protects the battery. I ve spent the winter designing a pwm solar charge controller which is now finished and working. Even a small solar panel hooked directly to a fully charged battery can overcharge it.