Solar Charge Controllers on eBay
Solar Charge Controllers On EBay
Find out about the selection of solar charge controllers available on ebay
solar | electronics | shoppingIn our article
Solar Charge Controller we introduced some of the devices used to
control (or
regulate) the amount of charge going from
PV solar panel(s)
to the
battery bank.
Batteries can easily be damaged by overcharging or excessively discharging them, so a good quality
solar charge controller is a vital component of any reliable solar powered system.
Solar Charge Controllers on eBay
Every day on
eBay a good range of
solar charge controllers are available for sale - for example, at the end of July 2008 there were 75 items found matching the search
Solar Controller -Panel on eBay UK ranging in price from £0.99 to £73.
Toward the top of the price range was the
45A 12/24V solar charge controller pictured above with an
LCD display. Offered for sale at just £63.99, this German produced solar regulator has virtually every feature you could ever ask for:
PWM charging, automatic selection of input voltage (12 or 24V), high voltage disconnection (HVD), low voltage disconnetion (LVD), intelligent temperature compensation, overload protection, short circuit protection, reverse current protection, reverse polarity protection, and a display to show the state of charge (SOC) and discharge. This controller could be used with up to 500 Watts of solar panels in a 12V system, or 1kW in a 24V system.
In the middle of the price range was the
25A 12/24V solar charge controller pictured above, again with an
LCD display. Offered at just £39.99, this
Wellsee WS-C2425 solar controller offers all the same features as the more expensive unit presented earlier, but for <25A systems - 300W at 12V or 600W at 24V.
Of interest to most people are the
12 Volt solar charge controllers designed for slightly smaller systems of around 5 to 20 Amps (60W to 240W). These are typically priced at around £20-25 for 10-20A units, and around £15 for most 5-10 Amp units.
Pictured above is a Chinese solar charge controller rated at 12V 5 Amps which offers
PWM charging, automatic temperature compensation, and overload, over discharge, and short circuit protection. This was priced at just £11 plus £3 for postage.
Choosing a Solar Charge Controller
The key things to look out for are
PWM charging (introduced
here) as this will get the most charge into your batteries, and the maximum power rating of the controller. It is best to purchase a good quality controller slighting over-rated for your planned system so that you have a little room for expansion later. Also, don't forget to add the postage charge to the sale price of the controller so you can compare total costs fairly.
Here are the latest eBay
solar charge controller listings:
Article Last Modified: 14:43, 29th Jul 2008Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
I bought a 30 amp MPPT controller on ebay recently, £79.89 from solar-energy2008 and took it to France for the week with 2 x 100 watt solar panels. We have a caravan and 12 old 12 volt car batteries hooked up for lighting - a lot of LED strips around the place - charging phones, laptops, power tools and the like. (We're working on an old house there) I first connected a 'Smartgauge' monitor to the battery bank as per the instructions, then connected the two solar panels to the MPPT controller and then on to the batteries. There were a couple of days when the mist and cloud did not clear fully until late on and so very little power was generated.
One morning the gauge showed only 30% left in the batteries.
And then the sun came out. Fully.
In just 6 hours the gauge was showing 60%, then the next day - another sunny day - it pushed in another 30%. I have never been so impressed. It is so much better than the normal charge controllers I have been using for the past 4 or 5 years.
Fred
October 23rd 2011 |
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