A Newbee question

 Hi Guys & Gals;

This is another Newbee question, now,  first try to remember that
"there are no stupid questions", and I hope that that will still be
true after this post (Ha Ha).

I have 3, 15 watt 1 Amp pannels (I have to build my system slowly). I
have a 7 amp charge controller and I was wondering, can I use 2
controllers on the same battery/batteries (after I get a few more 15
watt pannels), or will I have to buy one larger one. This wouldn't
bother me exept that I am quite poor and having a controller sitting
on the shelf doing nothing bothers me.

    When I need another controller should I move up to a 21 amp
controller, or put out more on a huge one (for my few pannels) so I
wont end up with a collection of idle controllers.

Any help and opinions would be greatly appreceated

Glenn

  As a rule, controllers of the same type or concept can be paralleled. For
example I have two Trace C60s and a Trace C40 all in parallel. Each has a
temperature compensator, and regardless of how finely I set the set points,
they dont always get to float at the same time, and there are several
reasons for that.

Paralleling an older on/off controller with a bulk/absorption/float
controller will work, I have done it, but it is less effective I believe. I
tried it with a C40 and a C30.

On the whole I would recommend getting an appropriate controller at the
start.

Simon