Convert SMPS to solar battery charger circuit simple at home.

Convert any SMPS circuit to solar battery bank charger

By: Alok kumar

Today we are going to learn how to convert or make a simple SMPS (Switched Mode Power Supply) solar battery charger circuit easily at home just by simply slightly modifying any SMPS electronic power supply.

The post wi try to explains a very novel way of
using an ordinary SMPS unit for charging a battery bank via solar panels.

The method will result in an
extremely efficient, compact, lightweight and fast solar charging of the connected battery.

SMPS ( switched mode power supply) have become very common these days and we find them being used in the form of of low voltage DC units wherever needed. The best example is our cell phone chargers which are actually compact SMPS 5V DC chargers via 110v / 220v ac input.

Solar power is becomming cheap and environment friendly and also becomming popular these days and guys are constantly in look out for good options in the form of solar chargers having the most efficient and fast charging response.

Solar panels or PV devices are normally utilized for charging lead acid batteries which tends to takep relatively long hour for getting fully charged, and especially when the sunlight conditions are bad things start getting even more sluggish.

For solution to the above problem is rather for enabling quicker charging from solar panels, special MPPT (maximum power point tracking) based solar chargers have been developed which effectively monitor the solar panel maximum power point levels and generate the most efficient charging conditions for the connected battery or battery bank to it.

In this post we are going to finf most efficient way of charging our battery or battery bank through a solar panel.

As proposed in one of my previous Post, a switch mode based power supply (SMPS) is probably the best option for making it work as a solar charger circuit, so here we will learn how to make an smps based solar charger circuit.

Making an SMPS can be quite complex and might require considerable amount of time and knowledge for the implementations so here rather we will only focus on how to convert a ready made smps into an effective solar smps battery charger circuit quickly.

For this we will require the
following materials, assuming the battery to be charged is 12V rated: A ready made 120V or 220V to 12V SMPS unit having current ratinh equal to 1/5th of the battery AH which is to be charged for example if battery is of 12 v 100 Ah then 20 amp will be best selection.

Connect all Solar Panels in series making  total open circuit voltage equals around 100V. Then connect wires.

How to Proceed.

As we all know a normal mains SMPS may be rated with minimum of 85V to 100V input in order to provide the required output DC, let's assume it to be 12V, meaning for acquiring 12V it must be supplied with a minimum of 100V at the input terminal.

Keeping the above issue in mine we must select a solar panel which is able to produce approximately 100V to 220 volt any, for making the coverted SMPS work nice.

Since PV panels with such high voltage might not be available, we may opt for many low voltage solar panel connected in series for generating the above voltage. For instance you can go for 3nos. of 30V solar panels and connect them in series to get 90V from it, which might just do the job.

The above input supplied to the procured SMPS would generate the required 12V which may be directly attached to the battery for charging it efficiently.

However a 12V supply might not charge a 12V battery we need at least 14V