Performance of battery charge controllers: First year test report

Conference · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991

OSTI ID:6241901

Dunlop, J ^[1]; Bower, W ^[2]; Harrington, S ^[3]

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1. Florida Solar Energy Center, Cape Canaveral, FL (United States)
2. Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
3. Ktech Corp., Albuquerque, NM (United States)

The results of the first year of an evaluation of charge controllers for stand-alone photovoltaic (PV) systems are presented. The objectives of the test program are to positively influence the development of battery charge controllers for stand-alone PV applications and to develop design and application criteria that will improve PV system reliability and battery performance. Future goals are to expand the evaluation program to include various battery technologies and controller algorithms. Also, the information is being communicated to manufacturers to aid in the design of more effective and reliable charge controllers for PV systems. Eight different models of small (nominal 10 amp) charge controllers are being subjected to a comprehensive evaluation. These evaluations include operational tests in identical stand-alone PV systems and environmental and electrical cycling tests. Selected custom tests are also performed on the controllers to determine the response to transients, installation requirements and system design compatibilities. Data presented in this paper include measured electrical characteristics of the controllers, temperature effects on set points, and operational performance in PV systems both in the lab and in the field. A comparison is presented for four different charge controller algorithms which include array-shunt, series-interrupting, series-linear constant-voltage and series-linear-multistep constant-current. 9 refs., 11 figs., 2 tabs.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-76DP00789
• OSTI ID: 6241901
• Report Number(s): SAND-91-2212C; CONF-911055-9; ON: DE92002924
• Resource Relation: Conference: 22. IEEE photovoltaic specialists conference, Las Vegas, NV (United States), 7-11 Oct 1991
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
42 ENGINEERING
99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
COMPUTERIZED CONTROL SYSTEMS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
ELECTRIC BATTERIES
CONTROL
ALGORITHMS
EVALUATION
PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS
CONTROL SYSTEMS
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
ON-LINE CONTROL SYSTEMS
ON-LINE SYSTEMS
PHOTOELECTRIC CELLS
TESTING
140501* - Solar Energy Conversion- Photovoltaic Conversion
426000 - Engineering- Components
Electron Devices & Circuits- (1990-)
990200 - Mathematics & Computers