Manual

Q. Will the solar panel charge my flat battery & how long will it take?
A. The SPP80-MC4, SPP120-MC4, SPP135-MC4 & SPP150-MC4 will charge a battery. See table below for
recommended charge times.
Recommended charge times for different solar panels
SPP80-MC4 SPP120-MC4 SPP135-MC4 SPP150-MC4
Automotive 250–900 CCA 250–1200 CCA 300–1300 CCA 350–1400 CCA
Marine 300–1000 MCA 350–1500 MCA 400–2000 MCA 500–2200 MCA
Deep Cycle 30–140 Ah 40–200 Ah 50–240 Ah 60–260 Ah
Charging times 7–35 Hours 7–35 Hours 7–35 Hours 7–35 Hours
Q. I am going on a 4WD trip. How many solar panels will I need?
A. It really comes down to how many appliances are drawing power from your battery.
The number of solar panels required should be based on how much power is used over a 24 hour period.
For example: Most people when they go away would run a Fridge, and a couple of lights to cook with etc.
We need to work out how much power would be used in a day.
Energy consumption per day
Appliance Current use/hour Total time of use/day Total Current per day
(Ah) (Hours) (Amps)
Fridge 1.5 24 36
Lights 33 9
Grand total 45
So we need to size a solar system that can produce around 45 Amps per day. If we say we get around 10 hours
of solar energy from the panels per day (for summer months). We can then calculate what size and how many
panels we need.
45 amps ÷ 10 hours = 4.5 Amps per hour
One SPP80 to produce 4.6 Amps an hour should be more than enough. You might find that during cloudy
weather you will have to charge the battery by running your car for half an hour every second or third day
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