Affordable $40 or less PWM 24v Charge Controller?

[rs14smith]

Hi all,

For a small project of mine I'm looking for a reliable 24v charge controller. I've found quite a few controllers on eBay and some on Amazon. However, many are brands I haven't heard of, for example this **broken link removed**.

I'm hoping someone here has purchased some of these lower cost charge controllers and can recommend based off their experience which to go with. Considering this is a "small" project, I do not want to spend $100+ for a controller.

 

[colin55]

These items have to be good to be on eBay.

 

[rs14smith]

These items have to be good to be on eBay.

lol, well I went ahead and just purchased the Morningstar Prostar 15. It's way more than what I wanted to pay for, but to me the charge controller is one of the most important parts of the system and I know Morningstar usually makes reliable products.

 

[janptak]

Whats the difference between PWM and MPPT charger? Is PWM different to **broken link removed**?

 

[AlexD]

Whats the difference between PWM and MPPT charger? Is PWM different to **broken link removed**?

Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) solar charge controllers do a much better job at letting the solar panel(s) operate at their optimal voltage and current output point (maximizing the power output at any point in time) than the traditional Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) solar charge controllers which force the solar panel(s) to operate at the same voltage as your battery (bank). In situations where your battery (bank) is at a low voltage (pretty well discharged) the voltage point your solar panel(s) produces its peak amount of power is pretty far away. In these situations a MPPT charge controller can improve the power extracted from the solar panels by as much as 30% versus a PWM charge controller. Here are two articles that talk about the differences and explain MPPT charge controllers even better:

• Pros and Con of PWM and MPPT charge controllers
  
• How MPPT Charge Controllers Work