List Price: $685.00
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I needed a solar regulator which could take a 280 watt high voltage input (60v nominal) to charge a 12v battery bank. This unit from Xantrex has worked well for the last year in a marine environment.
One thing to be aware of is that it requires an external power source other than the solar panels. I found this out after a long stretch of cloudy weather. The battery voltage was so low that this charger could no longer operate. When the sun came back out, there wasn't enough power in the batteries to run the charger and so it couldn't recover! I solved this with a bigger battery bank and a low voltage disconnect on our load to prevent the batteries from being depleted to such an extent. It would be nice if the internal circuit could bootstrap itself from either the battery or solar panels.
It would have been nice if the circuit boards were more protected. The unit itself is full of holes, so care must be taken to keep it dry. Previously I have used small potted charge controllers which would probably survive immersion.
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