Harbor Freight 45w charge controller with an 80w solar panel, and more!

hpcbmw

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Sep 28, 2011
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Northern Cal
I've got a Sunforce 12v 30amp digital solar charge controller that a prior owner installed in my recently purchased Four Wheel Camper. It also came with an 80w solar panel.

I've got a Harbor Freight 45W solar panel kit (comes with 3 15w panels) - an older model of this kit: http://www.harborfreight.com/solar-panel-kit-45-watt-68751.html

The Harbor Freight kit is mounted on my 5th wheel, which is boondocked for the summer.

I'd like to use the 80w panel and the charge controller that came with the Harbor Freight kit, since the 5th wheel gets used each weekend. I'd then hook up one or two of the 15 w panels from Harbor Freight to the Sunforce solar charge controller in my rarely used pickup camper, to keep the battery topped of. CLEAR AS MUD???

So, my questions are
1. can i hook up an 80w solar panel to the Harbor Freight solar charge controller
2. if I use one 15w panel hooked up the the Sunforce charge controller that is mounted in my pickup camper, is that enough electricity to keep my single Optima Blue Top battery charged.

The reason I'm making this difficult is because the Sunforce charge controller is mounted in the cabinetry of my FW camper, removing it leaves a big ugly hole. Plus, if I go on a big camping trip, I'll take the 80w panel to keep my battery charged - and, of course, I never do things the easy way!

Thanks for any ideas.
 
Unfortunately the harbor freight charge controller doesn't say what its amperage rating is. I tend to doubt they sized it any larger than they had to. Probably won't work but without knowing more about the controller its hard to be sure.
 

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