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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / bought my first solar panal system
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vidaliaman
Member
# Posted: 15 May 2017 11:10
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menards had a 55 watt kit on sale, what is better, 2 12volt batteries, 4 6volt batteries? and would i hook my inverter to the positive of one battery and the negitive of the other battery?

vidaliaman
Member
# Posted: 16 May 2017 18:49
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also if i had 2 of these kits can i have one kit charging one 12v battery and the other kit charging another 12v battery, the 2 12 volt batteries are in sequence (pos - pos, neg - neg), one inverter hooked up to the pos of one battery and neg of the other battery?
pardon my ignorance but this is fun to learn

dave

FishHog
Member
# Posted: 17 May 2017 07:50
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55 w panels are pretty small, if you have a long time between use, they will charge your batteries, but for daily use, I doubt you will find them enough. But only you know your expected usage.
4x6v deep cycle will be better than 2 x 12. but unless your talking very small 12v batteries, I can't see hooking 2 up to a 55w panel. Those sizes just don't make sense. I have 300watts of panels to 2x6volt deep cycle batteries.

Not sure what your kit consists of, but you want to wire multiple panels together to one charge controller, and that charge controller to your batters hooked up in parallel or series as needed to get the voltage of the systems you want. Not multiple panels to multiple batteries hooked together.

some reading for you to get you started.
URL
URL

vidaliaman
Member
# Posted: 17 May 2017 08:22
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thanks for the info, i'm just learning, what i am looking for is to run a tv/dish and a handful of led lights, as of now we bring a charged 12v battery, hook that up to a 400w inverter and watch tv in the evenings, we bring the 12v battery back at end of the weekend and charge it up and it is ready for the next weekend, just looking for enough charge to leave battery at cabin knowing it will maintain it charge

FishHog
Member
# Posted: 17 May 2017 15:23
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assuming Flooded lead acid batteries. In which case draining them more than 50% will seriously shorten their life cycle. Would be a good idea to get a volt meter and see how much you actually use over a weekend. But I suspect your draining a lot and your battery won't last. More panels to keep it charged up might be a cost savings in the long run.

But you need data to make those decisions.

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