Low battery voltage, adding additional panels

8 Posts

Apr 21, 2008 02:29 pm

My batteries never get above 12.5 volts yet my panels say they are kicking out 16volts, I can't for the life of me figure out why. So I tried adding some tiny panels in a series that produce 4.5 volts, that didn't work out too well, it cut the overall output in half Sad

Is there any way I can add lower voltage panels to the system to try and bring up the battery voltage to a reasonable level?

Thanks!!!

Travis M

76 Posts

Apr 22, 2008 10:50 am

Re: Low battery voltage, adding additional panels

If you already have PV modules, and you want to add more (but different) modules, they must be added in parallel, and should be segregated by going through a different charge controller.

John D

184 Posts

Apr 22, 2008 02:10 pm

Re: Low battery voltage, adding additional panels

Quote from: Will Williams on Apr 21, 2008 02:29 pm

Is there any way I can add lower voltage panels to the system to try and bring up the battery voltage to a reasonable level?

Thanks!!!

It sounds like you either have one or more bad batteries in your battery bank, you do not have enough PV capacity with respect to the size of the batteries, or you have a load that is keeping your batteries from getting fully charged. It would help if you would tell us more about your system. Adding lower voltage panels to your system does not seem like a good solution.

Will Williams

8 Posts

Apr 23, 2008 03:29 pm

Re: Low battery voltage, adding additional panels

I'm starting to think it's batteries too.
Here's my setup:
4 x 3.5volt panels in a series producing about 16volts going through a 10amp controller to 2 x 12volt batteries in parallel.

Like I said the batteries never get above 12.5 volts even without a load. They are located in the shed and they did pretty cold this winter, it got down to -20f. Could the batteries have froze or completely discharged themselves?

Out of curiosity, would adding these 2 tiny 4.5volt panels directly to the batteries help at all? or would they create some sort of drain on the system?

Thanks for the help

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Low battery voltage, adding additional panels

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