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Let's suppose there is a battery which powers a DC load. There is a solar panel which gives power from time to time. How do I connect them all together so that the solar panel powers the load and charges the battery when the sun comes out and the load is powered by the battery the rest of the time?

olegst
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  • What, exactly, is an accumulator or a consumer? I would guess 'consumer' means load... is an 'accumulator' a capacitor? – Hearth Apr 25 '17 at 19:39
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    Solar charge controllers are made for this. ( an "accumulator" is a rechargeable battery - traditionally, lead-acid) –  Apr 25 '17 at 19:52
  • @Felthry I meant solar panel, battery and DC load. Sorry for my English. – olegst Apr 25 '17 at 20:45
  • That's fine! It just wasn't terminology that was familiar to me, and I didn't want to try to answer a question I didn't understand. – Hearth Apr 25 '17 at 20:46
  • The answer to this question depends on what load you are powering and if it needs to operate without intervention. Take a look at https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/80804/charging-12v-batteries-with-direct-connection-to-20v-solar-panels for some interesting discussion on the simplest way (and its limitations) to wire a solar panel, battery, and load together. – lswim Apr 25 '17 at 21:32

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Basically, you would need two DC-DC converters, one would charge the battery from the solar panel, and the second one would power your load from the battery.

To be efficient, the solar-battery converter would need to implement an MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) algorithm, and both converters would have to manage battery to avoid Overvoltage/Overcurrent issues.

The exact topologies depend on your Solar panel, battery and load Voltages.

Brian Carlton
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Sclrx
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