If you’ve got a 50-watt solar panel and you’re looking to setup a small off-grid solar system for your cabin or while out camping, then you might want to know what charge controller and battery to use for the system to work optimally without investing in oversized solar system components (unless you choose to).
Read on for suggested component sizes to use with the 50-watt solar panel.
Battery Size (Ah) Best Suited for a 50-watt Solar Panel
You can use the 50-watt solar panel charge controller to charge a 20-25 Ah AGM battery or a 10Ah LiFePO4 battery with the estimated 200 Wh of energy (50 watts x 4 hours) from the solar panel.
This assumes the solar panel receives about 4 hours of sunshine and that the batteries are discharged to their recommended depth of discharge, i.e 50% for AGM and 80% for LiFePo4.
Can you Use a Larger Capacity Battery Bank?
Unless used to trickle charge a larger battery bank, there is a risk that the solar panel will not be able to fully charge it unless the draw is minimal and they’re being used to trickle charge the battery.
Number of Batteries to Use
One battery considering that the battery capacity (Ah) is low, 20-25 Ah AGM battery or a 10Ah LiFePO4 battery.
Duration to Charge Battery (Hours)
It takes about 6-8 hours to fully charge a 20-25 Ah AGM battery or a 10Ah LiFePO4 battery bank assuming it’s been discharged to 50% of its capacity.
Charge time can be shorter if the battery is only partially discharged (50% or less).
Related Questions
Can it Charge a 100 Ah Battery?
It is not suited to charging a 100 Ah battery unless it is only being used to keep it topped up (trickle charger or battery maintainer mode), standby, or the battery is partially discharged.
For regular, deep-cycle use, it is small and will not be able to regularly fully charge the battery. For a 100Ah AGM battery, use a 200-watt solar panel or larger to keep it charged regularly.
Charge Controller
You can use a 5 amp charger controller or larger for a 50-watt solar panel.
How many amps?
The solar panel has an estimated operating current of 2.6 amps so 5 amps or larger (if you plan to increase the solar panel size) works well.
The solar panel is usually bundled with a PWM 10 amp charge controller though which is fine too as the price difference between a 5 amp and a 10 amp charge controller is usually small.
Does it generate enough power?
The 50W solar panel generates an estimated 200 watt- hours a day suited to powering low-power appliances for a limited time.
Examples of appliances are LED lights, a small TV, small 12V watt pumps, sprinklers or even charging phones.
Note: This light is not exhaustive. Make sure the combined energy consumption of the connected appliances does not exceed the recommended depth of discharge of the battery bank used or else it’ll shorten battery life.
Closing Thoughts
Use a 20-25Ah AGM battery or 10Ah LiFePO4 battery with a 50-watt solar panel. A 5 amp PWM charge controller or larger can be used to safeguard the battery against overcharging and discharging.
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