adding more solar panel & battery?
I have a question please help! I just bought the complete 45 watt solar kit from harbor Freight http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=90599
plus also I got an inverter http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=66817 .
Can I add more solar panel let say up to 200 watt and adding two 12 volts battery using the same charges controller and power inverter?
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You can wire solar panels in parallel (i.e. positive to positive, negative to negative). Preferably, the panels should be similar to allow the output voltages to track. Otherwise, it may be necessary to include diodes in series with each panel so voltage variations do not have an adverse effect.
The other alternative is to have the panels charging individual batteries and then combining the batteries through diodes before using the inverter. This approach would require separate charge controllers for each battery. Not quite as energy efficient as each diode causes a voltage drop (and so a power loss).
That charge controller is notoriously cheap and burns up easily. If you are going add solar panels, also buy another charge controller to go with them. They can both be connected to the same battery bank. I don’t believe the kit comes with batteries, so you would buy whatever size 12V battery bank your power requirements call for.
The size of the inverter depends entirely on what you are going to power with it, not the size of the panel array. As long as you are not powering anything that is over the 300W rating, you don’t need a new one. Just be sure to check the details of the inverter, is it 300W continuous, or can it handle up to a 300W surge? Also, it’s a modified sine wave inverter instead of a pure sine wave inverter, so don’t plug any sensitive electronics into it. They may not work, or you may get a buzz or hum from it.