I have a 90 watt solar panel and 100A lead acid battery feeding a 12V DC led light bulb from dusk to dawn. There is a controller with low voltage disconnect at 11.5V and low voltage reconnect at 12V, presumably this function is to prevent the battery from being over drained.
This tiny system works OK in the summer months, but not so in the winter months, especially when there are days of snow. There is not enough sunlight to charge up the battery. Very often, the battery just goes dead.
One solution I can think of is to tie the battery to a battery charger at all times. Nowadays battery chargers can cut itself off when the battery is full.
My question is whether there is a way to activate the battery charger only when the battery goes down to say 11.5V or higher and deactivate when the battery is full, thereby making full use of the solar energy stored, Thanks.
This tiny system works OK in the summer months, but not so in the winter months, especially when there are days of snow. There is not enough sunlight to charge up the battery. Very often, the battery just goes dead.
One solution I can think of is to tie the battery to a battery charger at all times. Nowadays battery chargers can cut itself off when the battery is full.
My question is whether there is a way to activate the battery charger only when the battery goes down to say 11.5V or higher and deactivate when the battery is full, thereby making full use of the solar energy stored, Thanks.