Jerry Wenzel's posts

Thank you for the valuable input.  One other factor, its going to be hard for me to avoid occasional shading by trees.  Would 48V panels work better because they could still see a lot of voltage drop off before they get below 14 or 15 volts.  Whereas 12 volt panels may quickly drop below a voltage that could push any power to the batteries.

Granted the power in the shade would be less but might the 48V panels still manage a trickle charge in the shade where as 12v panels couldn't?

Thank you.

I have a off grid cabin with 4 golf cart batteries powering a 12VDC to 120VAC Xantrex 2kW inverter.  The main load is CF lighting with occasional use of a power tool, microwave or small appliance. 

We currently use the cabin 2 weekends a month and recharge the batteries using a generator and the inverter's 100A charger.

My next step is to add solar panels to charge the batteries in our absence.  The Kaneka 60W 48v Thinfilm Solar Panels look like a good deal until I look for a charge controller that will accept the panels 48VDC nominal & 96VDC open circuit voltage to charge the 12V battery bank. I was looking at 2 panels.  The charge controllers I'm looking at that can do the voltage conversion are 3-4 times the current I need and hundreds of dollars.  Any suggestions on a charge controller that could handle 10 amps and 48VDC panels to a 12V battery bank?

Thank you,

Jerry