Solar panel charging (1 Viewer)

injebreck99

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Dec 5, 2011
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Is it normally OK to have a solar panel charge both engine and leisure batteries at the same time, it occurs to me that they are both batteries having different functions, one discharges slowly, and the other fast discharges, so do they both need charging at the same rate.
Would it be better to charge each battery individually , say via a changeover switch so that I could direct the charge to the relevant battery one at a time!, or would this be overkill, just a thought.
 
Apr 27, 2008
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My solar charges the leisure batteries, and once they are reasonably charged (13.5v on charge) then the starter battery is also charged. In practice this keeps both leisure batteries and the starter battery fully charged when in storage or parked elsewhere for long periods.
It depends on how your solar charging works though.
 
Sep 12, 2012
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I may be wrong (I think I was once), but don't think you should be charging two separate battery banks with a single output regulator? Solar regulators are available with outputs for 2 though, guess you need to check.
You could also do as Reallyretired suggests, my system does that through a battery master type thingy.

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pappajohn

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Aug 26, 2007
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As already said, you can't charge two separate batteries at the same time with a single channel controller.
The controller senses the charge state of the battery and adjust the charge current to suit.
if two separate batteries are present there will be a conflict between the batteries and controller.
 
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