Electronic Circuits and electronic circuits, electronic schematics plus an extensive resource for hobbyists, inventors and engineers

DiscoverCircuits.com, has 45,000+ electronic circuits, cross-referenced into 500+ categories.
We have searched the web to help you find quick solutions & design ideas.

Got Designs?
Please eMail
if you want me to link to and/or post your original design
NOTE:  We make every effort to link to original material posted by the designer. 
Please contact us if our link is not to your site!  Thanks.

DiscoverCircuits.com -- Hobby Corner
Last Updated on: Tuesday, June 01, 2021 03:06 PM

Hobby Circuits List

The contents & graphics of Discovercircuits.com are copyright protected.
LINK to Dave's circuit, but DO NOT COPY any files to your WEB SITE server



More Solar Cell Circuits; Battery Charger Circuits

 

12v to 24v Solar Battery Charger (May 11, 2017)
designed by David A. Johnson, P.E.

A while back I received an email from a Discover Circuits visitor.  He wanted to know how he could use a single 12v solar panel to charge a 24v lead acid battery bank.  He said he used the 24v battery to run an emergency 120vac power system.   By using the higher 24 volts instead of 12v, his DC to AC inverter could pump out more peak power, for starting things like well pumps and window air conditioners.

I thought about the challenge and came up with a simple solution.  The charging circuit shown below takes advantage of very common 12v battery charge controllers, connected to a high current double pole/double throw (DPDT) latching relay. The 12v latching relay is the type which uses a single coil.  A simple 555 timer, wired as a low frequency oscillator, drives the single coil relay with short pulses, which applies alternating polarity pulses to the relay’s coil every 5 minutes. The oscillator first sets the relay, which charges one 12v battery, then switches the charger to the second 12v battery.  

You own an emergency solar power system.  It consists of two 100w 36 cell solar panels wired in series, connected to a charge controller.

You lose one solar panel.  How do you charge the 24v battery from a 12v source?

12/24v charge controller.

Another configuration could use a 60 cell solar panel, designed for charging 24v batteries, to charge two different 24v batteries.  This would boost the voltage to 48v.

 

Click on Drawing Below to view PDF version of Schematic

More Solar Cell Circuits

Hobby Circuits List
eMail David A. Johnson, P.E. about this circuit

 


HOME Schematics Index Hobby Corner Dave's Circuits Contact Info
Imagineering Ezine Dave Johnson & Associates Faraday Touch Switches


 About Us   |  Advertise on DiscoverCircuits.com   |   Report Broken Links  |    Link to DiscoverCircuits.com  |    Privacy Policy

Copyright  January, 1998 - June, 2021     David A. Johnson  All Rights reserved. 
 Linking is ALLOWED but COPYING any content or graphics to your web site is EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED.