Charging from multiple sources

From www.svreach.com




If all of your charging sources have multistage regulators that are all set to the same charging regimen points (and you have a large enough, or sufficiently depleted battery bank), then all of them will put out all they can during the bulk charging stage.

When bulk charge is reached, then they may start to play against each other and the output of one charging source might shut down the output of another due to slight variations of the regulator set points and how charge is sensed. But now it doesn't matter because your batteries cannot accept the higher current of all your charging sources and as long as one of those sources can supply the absorb current, all is well.

In fact, it is dandy if you have multiple charging sources. For example, if you are in the absorption phase of the charge cycle and your solar panel regulator has shut down your wind generator regulator and is supplying the entire absorption charge, then when clouds decrease the solar output, your wind generator will step in and shut down the solar regulator and continue the charging regimen.