Configuring The Charge Controller

All About Solar Power - Part 6/8

Read Time: About 3 Minutes 3 Min Read As long as the input from the solar panel is not connected, your battery will not be charging. That's good, because you want to set up your CC to charge your specific battery properly before you let it charge. The following information will need to be correctly entered, and all of it will be unique to your setup. Having said that, assuming a single AGM type battery and a single solar panel, as this is probably the most common setup, these settings should be in the ballpark:

Battery Voltage
12v

Battery Capacity
Read the label on the battery (it's the number followed by Ah : 100Ah is a common size)

Battery Type
AGM (or User, if AGM is not listed)

Over Voltage Disconnect
15.8v for my 105Ah AGM batteries.
Could be anywhere up to 17.5v, depending on manufacturer and capacity.

Equalization Voltage
14.8v

Boost Voltage
14.4v

Float Voltage
13.8v

Boost Recovery Voltage
13.2v

Equalization Duration
120 min

Equilibrium Charging Interval
30 day

Equilibrium Charging Time
120 min


All of this information should be available from the manufacturer of your battery. If you can't find a data sheet on their website and your battery didn't come with one, contact them or a local battery retailer for help setting these parameters. It's important to get these settings right before applying power from the panel, as this will ensure that the correct charging profile is used from the moment you connect the panel to the CC's input. This is a strong recommendation that could save your battery from being permanently damaged by over-charging.