Solar Panel charging setup upgrade

[Errol Peinke]

Good afternoon all

I need advice please.

My current setup up is as follows –

I have two deep cycle batteries being charged from the vehicle and also from a solar panel permanently fixed to the cab roof, a CTEK D250SA with a maximum output of 14.7V DC controls the charging.

The solar panel is a 120w with circuit voltage of 22.2V  and circuit current of 7.84A

Batteries are DISCOVERER 75amh and a 105amh . both batteries are over 5 years old and I found I was losing charge very quickly when running my 80liter ENGEL dual fridge overnight.

Available space on the roof rack for a replacement panel is 1400x700x40mm.

What do the experts suggest as replacements, I don’t want to replace the CTEK

Regards errol

 

[Chris Ainslie]

I would suggest replacing the batteries and leaving everything else the same for now.

Your batteries are not matched which isn't great; ideally they should be the same size and age to ensure they have as similar as possible internal resistance.

Get yourself either 1 or 2 105Ah deep cycle or AGM batteries and you'll be good to go. Even better, if that CTEK supports lithium batteries, get 1 ~100Ah and you'll be good.

I have a 120Ah lithium with 100W of solar and a 30A DCDC charger. After a weekend away with some sun and some driving with my fridge at 2C the whole time, my battery was full at the end of the weekend.

Kind Regards,

Chris

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[Hannes Thirion]

Get new batteries of the same size and age.

It is better to rather have 2 smaller panels than one big panel.

Connect that to a MPPT solar controller.

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