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eric-s asked

Adding PWM charger to grid charger

I have a monitoring station in a city in a sunny tropical area. Station power consumption is about 10 W. Station is powered from the grid. As grid is not very stable, I first used an UPS. Indeed, grid voltage is often low and UPS switch to internal battery until it is completely drained even without grid failure. Second, I used a 12V24Ah battery with a bluesmart charger (12V 5 A). Devices are DC power from the battery (with a 12V->5V buck converter for USB powered devices). All went fine until grid deteriorates strongly i.e. with electricity available only a couple of hours a day or even worth. My setup is no more strong enough. BTW, I also a BlueSolar PWM Charge Controller (DUO) LCD&USB 12/24-5 and solar panels up to 30 Wp (and can buy a bigger one) that I only use when going to the bush. So, to improve my powering, can I use grid and solar chargers in parallel?

gridBlueSolar PWM
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3 Answers
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kevgermany answered ·

Yes. Just make sure battery settings are the same

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eric-s answered ·

There are no settings in both chargers.

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eric-s answered ·

I made a small test on my balcony in Europe with devices that I have on hand:

  • Solar panel 10 Wc
  • PWM Pro 20 A
  • Pb battery 12V/24Ah
  • blue power charger 12/10
  • phoenix 12/500

Test loads:

  • LED 12V/5W
  • An electric cooler : 230V/45W(full);8W(eco)

So everything run well and nothing burned.

(Indeed, I didn't run the grid charger for long due its oversizing versus the battery).

Next step: installation at monitoring station with the PWM Pro, a solar panel around 60 Wc and stuff already in place.

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