BAD IDEA TO USE PV CHARGE REGULATOR WITH 13.8 POWER SUPPLY

 Hi,

    This is a bad idea according to an ASC manual that
i've got, because their PV charge regulators regulate
by short circuiting the input, which coud damage the
power supply or the regulator if the current is too high.

    So it looks like i should just get a dedicated
12 volt battery recharger for 120 AC usage, and
have a switch to go from solar cell recharge and
120 AC recharge.


Slick

  Dr. Slick wrote:


Or find a controller that doesn't short the input. ;-)
A diversion load may be good,maybe wrap the cold water inlet pipe to the
  hot water heater with some of that pipe-heater-wire stuff,used to
prevent pipes from freezing.Use the diversion load to pre-heat the water
a bit.(just a randon though,at the moment,dunno how well it would work.)
On second thought,something that would switch on/off the 120Vac charger
when needed would be better,Are there any controllers with an output
that would drive a relay to switch power to the charger only when
needed? That way you won't have the charger running all the time.(More
efficient.)