1. Can you use a 12V solar panel to charge a 48V battery?
No. Using a 12V solar panel to directly charge a 48V battery will result in a voltage mismatch, which is equivalent to using a low-voltage charger to charge a high-voltage battery, and there will be a state of not being able to charge the battery, and the battery will not be able to get an effective replenishment of power.
There may also be a state in which the battery continues to discharge, because the voltage provided by the solar panel is lower than the cut-off voltage at which the battery is discharged, and the battery will continue to continue to supply power to the load of the solar panel, which will result in a deep discharge of the battery, causing damage to the battery and seriously affecting the service life of the battery.
2. The solution of using 12V solar panel to charge 48V battery
When the solar panel voltage is lower than the rechargeable battery voltage, we will use MPPT type solar controller or PWM pulse controller to convert the battery voltage to the voltage needed by the battery, PWM type controller can’t convert the voltage to the voltage needed by the battery, it will be higher than the voltage of the battery, the charging efficiency has limitation, MPPT solar controller can convert the voltage to the voltage needed by the battery, adjust the voltage from the solar panel to the voltage needed by the battery, adjust the voltage from the solar panel to the voltage needed by the battery, the charging efficiency has limitation.
The MPPT type solar controller can convert the voltage to the required voltage of the battery and adjust the maximum power obtained from the solar panel to charge the battery. In addition to these two methods, you can also connect the solar panels in series, so that the voltage of the solar panels is higher than the voltage of the battery to charge the battery.
Summarize:
We are not allowed to use 12V solar panels to charge 48V batteries directly, if you want to charge the high voltage, you need to pay attention to the charging voltage and current, choose the right charging method to charge the battery, we recommend using MPPT type solar controller to charge the battery to maximize the protection of the battery. If used incorrectly it will cause irreversible damage to the battery, and there is also the possibility of spontaneous combustion or explosion safety accidents.
