The battery is the main component of your power station. Monitoring means knowing the state of charge in your battery. You can choose a voltmeter or use a purpose built monitoring system.
Using a 12 volt battery full of charge let’s say … 120 amp/hours.
If we measure the voltage of fully charged 12 volt battery with nothing connected it should be around 12.6 volts.
If we connect a reasonable load to the battery the voltage will drop to around 12.1 but the battery is still full of charge at this point.
If we connect a charging source to the battery, for example an 80 watt solar panel, the voltage will rise to about 15 – 16 volts.
If the battery was flat we might see the following:
- No load: 12 volts
- With load: 11.0 volts
- Charge connected: 13 volts
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How to choose the correct blocking diode for a 12 volt solar pannel, charging a 12 volt battery.