Quote:
Originally Posted by CRJ
This looks like a very easy way to hook up additional solar. Is there a large voltage drop due to the added length of small gage wires?
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um, what is 'This' ? there's 19 prior messages in this thread, and no clue what you're referring to.
Quote:
I have a 2015, 21 with solar charging. The solar charge controller is above the refrigerator with the rest of the monitoring equipment. I’m in the PNW and generally there’s lots of trees blocking the onboard solar system.
What’s the best option to add supplemental portable solar:
1) Connect solar panels to the existing charge controller (it has the capacity) without using an additional controller. Or
2) Directly connect to the batteries with an additional charge controller which is part of the portable package.
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if the additional panels have the same operating voltages, then wiring them to the same controller would work, but you want to use heavy gauge wires and keep that run as short as practical to minimize the voltage drop and power loss.
the bit about wire length and gauge is even more critical between the charge controller and the battery, although many charge controllers allow you to run a separate pair of wires as 'sense wires', which monitor the battery voltage without carrying any current, so they can be any skinny gauge you want.