Solar Hybrid Controller
What is a Solar Hybrid Controller?
A Solar Hybrid Controller or charge regulator is a voltage and/or current regulator to prevent batteries from overcharging. It regulates the voltage and current that come from the solar panels that go to the battery. Most “12 volts” panels emit between 16 and 20 volts, so if there is no regulation, the batteries will be damaged by overcharging. Most batteries need between 14 and 14.5 volts to be fully charged.
Do I need a Solar Hybrid Controller?
Not always, but usually. In general, there is no need for a hybrid charge controller with small maintenance or drip charging panels, such as 1 to 5-watt panels. A general rule of thumb is that if the panel emits about 2 watts or less for every 50 amp-hours of battery, then you don’t need one. If you decide to buy a Hybrid Controller Solar, you may want to find a hybrid controller solar sale, and itâs important to get the solar hybrid controller warranty.
Application of High-voltage Panels with Batteries
Almost all photovoltaic panels over 140 watts, like the Canadian Solar Panels, are NOT standard 12-volt panels and cannot (or at least should not) be used with standard a Solar Hybrid Controller. The voltages on the mains connection panels vary quite a bit, usually from 21 to 60 volts, more or less. Some are standard 24-volt panels, but most are not.
What happens when using a standard driver
Standard (that is, all but MPPT types), will often work with high-voltage panels if the maximum input voltage of the hybrid solar controller is not exceeded. However, you will lose a lot of power, from 20 to 60% of the rated power of your panel. The charge controls take the output from the panels and feed the current to the battery until the battery is fully charged, usually around 13.6 to 14.4 volts. A panel can only produce so many amps, so while the voltage is reduced from, say, 33 volts to 13.6 volts, the panel amps cannot exceed the nominal amps, so with a 175-watt panel rated at 23 volts/7.6 amps, you will only get 7.6 amps at 12 volts or so on the battery. Ohm’s law tells us that watts are volts x amps, so your 175-watt panel will only put about 90 watts into the battery.
Application of an MPPT controller with high voltage panels
The only way to get the full power from the high voltage grid tie solar panel in uae is to use an MPPT Solar Hybrid Controller. See the link above for detailed information on MPPT load controls. Since most MPPT controls can take up to 150 volts DC (some can go higher, up to 600 V DC) on the input side of the solar panel, you can often connect two or more of the high-voltage panels in series to reduce cable loss or to use a smaller cable. For example, with the 175-watt panel mentioned above, 2 of them in series would give you 46 volts at 7.6 amps on the MPPT controller, but the controller would convert it to about 29 amps at 12 volts.
Types of Solar Hybrid Controller
Charging controls come in all shapes, sizes, features, and price ranges. They range from the small 4.5 amp control to the 60 to 80 amp MPPT programmable controllers with computer interface. Often, if currents above 60 amperes are required, two or more units of 40 to 80 amperes are wired in parallel. The most common controls used for all battery-based systems are in the range of 4 to 60 amps, but some of the new MPPT controls reach up to 80 amps.
Hybrid solar charge controller comes in 3 types
Simple 1- or 2-stage controls rely on relays or shunt transistors to control the voltage in one or two steps. These essentially only short-circuit or disconnect the solar panel when a certain voltage is reached. For all practical purposes, these are dinosaurs, but you still see some on old systems and some of the super cheap ones for sale on the Internet. Their only real claim to fame is their reliability: they have so few components that there is not much to break.
3 stages and/or PWM such as Xantrex, Blue Sky, Steca, and many others. These are pretty much the industry standard now, but occasionally you’ll still see some of the older bypass/relay types, as in the very cheap systems offered by discounters and mass sellers.
Maximum PowerPoint tracking (MPPT), such as those manufactured by Midnite Solar, Xantrex, Outback Power, and others. These are the latest in the field Solar Hybrid Controller, with prices to match, but with efficiencies in the range of 94% to 98%, they can save considerable money on larger systems, since they provide 10 to 30% more energy to the battery. For more information, see our article on MPPT.
The best hybrid charge controller comes with some kind of indicator, be it a simple LED, a series of LEDs, or digital meters. Many newer ones, such as Outback Power, Midnite Classic, MPPT, and others, now have built-in computer interfaces for monitoring and control. The simplest ones usually have only a couple of small LED lamps, which show that you have energy and that you are receiving some kind of charge. Most of those that have meters will show both the voltage and current coming from the panels and the battery voltage. Some also show how much current is drawn from the CHARGING terminals.
What is PWM?
Quite a few charging controls have a âPWMâ mode. PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. PWM is often used as a floating charging method. Instead of a constant output from the Solar Hybrid Controller, it sends a series of short charging pulses to the battery, a very fast âon and offâ switch.
The hybrid solar charge controller constantly checks the battery status to determine how fast to send pulses and how long (wide) the pulses will be. On a fully charged battery without charging, it may simply âdialâ every few seconds and send a short pulse to the battery.
On a discharged battery, the pulses would be very long and almost continuous, or the controller could go into âfull onâ mode. The controller checks the state of charge of the battery between pulses and adjusts each time. Browse our solar equipment shop in dubai website to learn the Hybrid Controller Solar price in Dubai. We may have a hybrid controller solar for sale available for you.