Hi everybody, I have a 7.2ah sla battery. I use this to operate my remote electronic lock on my gate. This is a 12 volt lock. Working current start state =1.2A persistent state = 120ma.
I got a 12v solar panel to charge the battery. My first one was a 10 watt. I found this was not enough to keep the battery charged enough to keep the gate locked all night. I added 2 20w panels giving me 50w in total. These were connected in parallel.They still did not keep the battery charged.
I downloaded a tutorial which said that the panels should have the same nominal voltage but they don't have to have the same amp value.
I recently disconnected the 2 20w panels leaving only the 10w. The gate stayed locked during the night for the same time as when the 2 20w were connected.
The tutorial makes no mention of power ratings when connecting in parallel. So my assumption now from the results is that the output of the full 3 panel array follows the lowest rating panel 10w.
Can anybody confirm that this is correct?
I got a 12v solar panel to charge the battery. My first one was a 10 watt. I found this was not enough to keep the battery charged enough to keep the gate locked all night. I added 2 20w panels giving me 50w in total. These were connected in parallel.They still did not keep the battery charged.
I downloaded a tutorial which said that the panels should have the same nominal voltage but they don't have to have the same amp value.
I recently disconnected the 2 20w panels leaving only the 10w. The gate stayed locked during the night for the same time as when the 2 20w were connected.
The tutorial makes no mention of power ratings when connecting in parallel. So my assumption now from the results is that the output of the full 3 panel array follows the lowest rating panel 10w.
Can anybody confirm that this is correct?