24Volt Boat Lift Motor + 10watt Solar Panel ??? Electric guys?

[gsxr150]

Hi guys, so I spoke with the company who makes my boat lift motor, and they said no problem on running two 12 volt batteries in series (to make it 24 volt). However! I have a 10watt solar panel. I would assume I plug the positive onto one battery, and the negative on the other (working leads)... But will that charge a 24 volt system (since I have them running in series)?

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 24Volt Boat Lift Motor + 10watt Solar Panel ??? Electric guys?

it depends on the solar panel, it will put out one or the other 12v or 24v, if you have a 24v system and the solar panel is a 12v panel you will gain nothing, the most important issue for you is the voltage of the panel and then the current not the other way around.

You should be able to wire your solar panels in series just like your batteries but you will need a controller for them, once your batteries are fully charged the controller should disconnect them from your solar panel, even trickle chargers can overcharge a battery and cause the battery to die an early death, I use the trickle charge as an example because with 10 watts of power the solar panel is similar in charging rate to a trickle charger, the only difference being a solar panel doesn't have anything that will regulate when the batteries are fully charged.

 

[gsxr150]

Re: 24Volt Boat Lift Motor + 10watt Solar Panel ??? Electric guys?

Thanks for the reply. Currently I have two 12 volt batteries and one 10 watt 12 volt charger. Batteries are run parallel meaning I just have a powerful 12 volt system. The guy who sells the boat lift motors told me about how to run the two batteries together to make 24 volts. Then he asked if I had the 10 watt solar panel, I said yes, and he said there is a way to run that too... He's going to e-mail me something but after research I just don't see how it's possible. I happen to have another 12 volt panel, but it's starting to sound like a big pain to run another solar panel and "volt regulator".

 

[LippCJ7]

Re: 24Volt Boat Lift Motor + 10watt Solar Panel ??? Electric guys?

What he is planning on is a parallel series circuit and it is doable, pretty easy also but you will cut your output of the solar panel in half by doing it, now were talking about less then a trickle charger, I like his enthusiasm but you really need another solar panel which it sounds like you have, wire the batteries in series like he says, but wire each solar panel independently, one solar panel to each battery, I still recommend a controller but its obviously up to you.

All you are doing is charging each 12v battery with one solar panel, the fact that the batteries are in series doesn't matter unless your trying to charge them as a 24v system which you are not.

ugh think of it this way, lets say you have 4 6 volt batteries you want 24 volts so you wire the batteries positive to negative at the end of the system you have a negative on one side and a positive at the other(A series setup) if you measure these two points you will have roughly 24 volts but if you measure from the negative to the second battery positive you have 12 volts, now measure from the negative of the third battery to the last batteries positive and again you will have 12 volts even though the third battery is still tied to the whole battery system.

Now if you wire these same four batteries positive to positive and negative to negative with all four batteries you will have 6 volts (a parallel setup). The ideal charging system for a 24 volt system is a 24v charger but there are more then a few ways to skin a cat right?

 

[gsxr150]

Re: 24Volt Boat Lift Motor + 10watt Solar Panel ??? Electric guys?

What he is planning on is a parallel series circuit and it is doable, pretty easy also but you will cut your output of the solar panel in half by doing it, now were talking about less then a trickle charger, I like his enthusiasm but you really need another solar panel which it sounds like you have, wire the batteries in series like he says, but wire each solar panel independently, one solar panel to each battery, I still recommend a controller but its obviously up to you.

All you are doing is charging each 12v battery with one solar panel, the fact that the batteries are in series doesn't matter unless your trying to charge them as a 24v system which you are not.

ugh think of it this way, lets say you have 4 6 volt batteries you want 24 volts so you wire the batteries positive to negative at the end of the system you have a negative on one side and a positive at the other(A series setup) if you measure these two points you will have roughly 24 volts but if you measure from the negative to the second battery positive you have 12 volts, now measure from the negative of the third battery to the last batteries positive and again you will have 12 volts even though the third battery is still tied to the whole battery system.

Now if you wire these same four batteries positive to positive and negative to negative with all four batteries you will have 6 volts (a parallel setup). The ideal charging system for a 24 volt system is a 24v charger but there are more then a few ways to skin a cat right?

Thank you very much for taking time out of your day to help me. It's much appreciated.

So based on what your saying, and what this guy will probably say, I can use one solar panel on a parallel series circuit. Even if it cuts my charge in 1/2 for a while, that's probably ok...at least until I can mount my second solar panel.

Here's what I should have BEFORE I plug in the one (1) 10 watt, 12 Volt solar panel...

I have two batteries on top of each other. Top battery positive to bottom battery negative. Then, power wench positive to bottom battery positive, and power wench negative to top battery negative. This should create my 24 volts.

Then how would I plug in the one (1) solar panel in this "parallel series circuit"?