Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller Review
Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller Review
A review of the Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller
solar | shoppingThe
Steca PR 0505 is a
solar charge controller (aka
solar charge regulator) for small 12V solar home systems of up to 60 Watts power (5 Amps) with a maximum load of 75 Watts. Made in Germany by
Steca, this product is available in the United Kingdom for around 25 GBP.
Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller
The first impression of the
Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller is the quality of the product. Unlike most competitors' equivalent products, this unit is very well made and looks like it will last many years. Popping the front cover off the unit and looking inside it can be seen that the manufacturing quality is not just skin deep.
Though you would not typically look inside a
solar charge controller, it is reassuring to know that such care has been taken to ensure the longevity and reliability of this product.
Installing the Steca PR 0505 Solar Charge Controller
Setting up and using the Steca PR 0505 solar charge controller is very simple. In addition to illustrated connection diagrams on the cut-out-and-keep user manual printed on the back of the box, the positive and negative input and output points for the solar panel, battery, and load connections are also labelled on the front of the
charge controller unit. Connecting wires are simply inserted into the labelled
terminal strip holes, and secured using a small (approx 3mm) flat-head screwdriver (not supplied).
With everything correctly wired up, the Steca PR 0505 can be fixed to a nearby wall or surface via the two 4mm fixing holes.
Using the Steca PR 0505
The
Steca PR 0505 arrives ready to use with no set-up / programming required. 3 LEDs are used to display the system status. There is a
battery charging LED (yellow) which remains lit while the solar panel is charging the batteries. The red and green LEDs are used to indicate battery charge status: green LED on its own means the battery is fully charged (13.7V), red LED on its own means the battery is empty (approx. 11V or lower), and both on at the same time means the battery is between 11 and 13.7 Volts.
There is also a master
switch for turning the power to the load on or off. This is particularly useful setting up or adjusting the load device - for example when building an
LED lighting circuit, or to save power with a device or circuit which uses electricity when switched off.
The Steca PR 0505 protects against
reverse currents at night, so there is no need to have an additional
blocking diode in the system.
System Tracking with Steca PR 0505
In terms of the information displayed, this is a very basic
solar charge controller.
Steca manufacture a range of solar charge controllers with fitted
LCD displays
to show exact battery charge status and other useful information, but these are far more expensive and designed for use with much larger more powerful solar systems.
A
solar control panel can be constructed around the Steca PR 0505 with a low resistance
Shunt Resistor
connected into the live solar panel output, and the live load output to enable the current flowing in and out of the system to be measured accurately using a
digital multimeter.
(
If 0.01 Ohm resistors are used then a measured 50mV voltage drop across the resistor will correspond to a 5 Amp current flowing through the circuit. At the 5 Amp rated current of this device, just 250mW would be lost in the resistor - just 0.4% of the total power.)
Steca PR 0505 Features
As with the
SunGuard 4.5A solar charge controller, the Steca PR 0505 uses
Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) series battery charging which is 30% more efficient than cheaper basic '
on-off' regulators.
The
Steca PR 0505 offers much more than its equivalent competitor products with a full range of features and electronic protections typically only found on far more expensive solar charge controllers for larger systems. Features include an automatic
electronic fuse, boost charging (14.4V), temperature compensation, and current compensated deep discharge protection (to protect the batteries from being deeply drained by the load).
Electronic protections include both high and low voltage disconnects, reverse polarity protection of the solar module(s), battery, and load, short circuit protection of the solar modules and load, and even
lightning protection.
Overall Conclusions
For the money, the
Steca PR 0505 is hard to beat. Packed with features and electronic protections it is very well designed and manufactured. While it is possible to buy 5 Amp rated
solar charge controllers for as little as £5-10, over the lifetime of the product, the Steca PR 0505 is much better value for money. The efficient
PWM battery charging means more
solar power can be harvested, and the system battery (or battery bank) will be better protected. The Steca PR 0505 is very simple to use and can be installed in just a few minutes by anybody.
The
Steca PR 0505 User Manual (PDF) can be downloaded here. This is just 1 page of illustrations which show how to connect and use the solar charge controller. Further technical details are available in the
Steca PR 0505 Data Sheet (PDF) which can also be downloaded here.
Purchasing a Steca Solar Regulator
The
Steca PR 0505 and other solar electronic products are available in the United Kingdom from the following official
Steca dealers:
www.dulas.org.uk
,
www.marlec.co.uk,
www.windandsun.co.uk
, and
www.abbutt.co.uk.
Article Last Modified: 10:58, 23rd May 2007Comment on this Article
If you have any comments on this article, please email them to
neil@reuk.co.uk.
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