Charge Controllers

Since renewable energy power systems almost always gather power and store it in batteries, almost every system requires a charge controller. A solar charge controller will protect your batteries from being overcharged by your solar panels and it will block any reverse current (from the batteries) as well. Solar charge controllers will actually protect every aspect of your solar power system from your batteries to your solar panels. The charge controller is absolutely worth the $100-$500 investment! Temperature sensors are an inexpensive addition that help the charge controller more accurately regulate the charge of the battery bank.

Charge Controllers can have quite a few different applications. We've tried to categorize them for better understanding. Check out the brief descriptions for each:

• Solar Charge Controllers: used to regulate charge and protect batteries in solar electric systems
• Solar Lighting Controllers: offer both a solar charge controller and a programmable lighting controller in one unit. DC lights or other dc loads can be run directly off of the solar lighting controller, thus potentially eliminating the need for a separate timer or load controller.
• AC Charge Controllers: use an alternating current (AC) source like a wall outlet or a petrol generator to charge a direct current DC battery bank. Various models are available that allow for faster charging, or different voltage inputs and outputs.
• Constant Voltage Regulator: These products either take a variable lower voltage, typically a lower voltage battery and increase the voltage to a fixed higher voltage or take a variable higher voltage (from a battery or solar panel) and decrease the voltage to a fixed lower voltage.
• Diversion Load Controllers: The models in this category have the capability of being either a solar charge controller, a dc load controller, or a diversion load controller. The trick is that they can only do one at a time.
• Temperature Sensors: Battery temperature sensors allow a charging source, such as a solar charge controller or AC charger, to know the battery temperature. This prompts the charging source to adjust the charge settings in order to provide appropriate charging as well as to protect the battery. Generally each charge controller brand has its own specific temperature sensor that is sold separately.