I have a 64 Watt Funicular panel and 6 golf car batteries, no regulator.
The batteries settle in at mid 13V range. My friend has a 120 Watt panel
and 4 golf car batts WITH a on/off regulator. The regulator only shuts off
when the motor runs and charges, otherwise no. The regulator was a waste of
money, it has no useful purpose as it never actually activates. (It is
unnecessary to activate while charging elsewhere, the other
charger/alternator will regulate the voltage, giving same effect.) Anyway,
batteries are discharging themselves, and/or can accept small continuous
charging. These small solar panels are not overcharging if water is not
lost too quickly. If the solar panel in watts is less than ~1/4 of battery
capacity in amp/hours, skip the regulator.
"Larry" wrote in message
...
(Floating Mind) wrote in news:4579-44FDB1DC-291
@storefull-3111.bay.webtv.net:

One of the batteries on my boat never gets a deep discharge. I use a 14
watt panel with it, and that panel keeps it up just fine. It was cheap
at Harbour Freight, about $40, and it's small enough where you don't
need a regulator. It measures about 12" x 18".


You must have some kind of load on the battery or the solar panel wattage
is a big lie. 14W = about 1A x 6 hours a day = 6AH/day x 30 =
180AH/month.

That's more than enough to really overcharge a fully-unloaded battery,
even
one that was way discharged, which just takes longer. Solar panels have
an
open circuit voltage the overcharged battery will attempt to rise to of
18-
22 VDC, so the battery, unable to get that high, just keeps overcharging
and overcharging and overcharging....slowly...doesn't get hot...but not
good.

Might be OK if you have HUGE batteries or a bilge pump.

--
There's amazing intelligence in the Universe.
You can tell because none of them ever called Earth.