When to Use a Solar Charge Controller
To know if a particular solar power system needs a charge controller, we need to calculate it in a scientifically safe way: take the amp-hour capacity of the batteries in the power system and divide it by the maximum power amp rating of the solar panels. If this comes out to be greater than 200, then a controller is required, and vice versa.
Secondly, solar charge controllers are only mandatory when that power system is off-grid because when most home solar power systems are connected to the grid, the excess power output from the solar panels is fed into the grid so that overcharging of the batteries does not occur.
There is also a situation where we don’t need to have a controller for a solar panel system and that is when that solar panel system doesn’t have a battery.
Why we need to use solar charge controllers
1. Installing a controller prevents damage caused by overcharging the battery and current backflow to the solar panel.
A solar charge controller is an important component of a solar panel system that ensures that the batteries in the system are maintained at the proper charge rate and charge power. Its main functions are: receiving power generated by the solar panel, controlling the amount of power flowing to the system battery, detecting the system battery voltage in real time, and preventing power backflow.
2. When the battery is charging, its internal voltage will continue to rise, and when it rises to a certain level, or even exceeds the battery’s own limits, it will cause some damage to the battery. And in general, human beings can not accurately judge the battery charging situation, this time it is necessary to solar battery charger to ensure that the solar panels issued by the power can be transported by the battery, but at the same time will not be too much input to exceed the limits of the battery, damage to the battery.
3. We all know that electrons flow in the direction from low voltage to high voltage, so current flows in the direction from high voltage to low voltage. When a solar panel encounters cloudy weather or other conditions that prevent it from producing a certain amount of electricity, the voltage at that end of the battery will be higher than that of the solar panel, and if there is no blockage in the middle, the current will flow back from the battery to the solar charging panel, which could cause serious damage to the entire power generation system! At this time it is necessary for the controller to play the role of a barrier in the middle to stop the current from flowing back.
Common functions and settings of solar charge controllers
First of all, we need to know that the function of the charge controller is realized by reading the battery voltage and calculating the energy required to fully charge the battery. And the type of solar charge controller is divided into pulse width modulation and maximum efficiency point tracking two kinds, where the simpler pulse width modulation controller can set the type of battery in the solar panel system and the system battery voltage, while the more advanced maximum efficiency point tracking controller has more functions: such as the use of LED screen to display the data, detecting the battery temperature during charging, and through the bluetooth will be the customized settings of the controller and the battery input/output. The more advanced maximum efficiency point tracking controllers have more features, such as displaying data using an LED screen, detecting battery temperature while charging, and putting key information about the controller’s customized settings and battery input/output levels on a mobile app via Bluetooth so you can view them at any time.
Summarize
The solar charge controller is a core component of the entire solar panel system, it connects the solar panels and the battery pack, bridging the gap between the two, so whether to install it, when to install it and what kind of controller to install need to be based on scientifically rigorous calculations to determine.
