Still sort of cloudy-ish, but the volts out of panels are now 19-21V, and the Redarc is now happily keeping the whole thing "floating". So far it works... Going to be very sunny next 3-4 days when I'm going away so, it'll be great having that keeping the charge up while car is sitting there.




Quote Originally Posted by Nightjar View Post
Not too savvy on electrics.
Question: Does the ignition need to be left "on" for the panels to charge in the above set up?
No. Which is the whole purpose of the switchover relay coupled with the redarc bcdc. If ignition is on, and car is running and the primary battery / alternator volts are above 13 or something, the unit is charging from that...
If ignition is off, the relay switches over to solar input and charges from there if the panels are plugged in and the voltage conditions are right. It is a set and forget system ... Especially for people with permanent mounted panels, like on the roof or something.


Quote Originally Posted by Nightjar View Post
If so, why not just use the panels + solar controller and connect directly to battery via a Anderson plug?