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nimanama avatar image
nimanama asked

Will it be safe to use a 330W 19.5V 16.9A laptop charger for my 100/20 controller?

I have seen online people rewiring laptop chargers for their MPPT controllers, and I'm assuming that I can use a charger which has 16.9A. It would be very useful for me as this setup is in my van, and being able to swiftly disconnect my PV and connect a charger to the same input would be great.

It seems it would work but there is always a space for the unknown so thought I would post here. Besides I also saw something online that suggest that the controller could try to pull in more power of the laptop charger and would go into overcurrent. Anyone to validate this?


Thanks in advance!

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1 Answer
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porcini answered ·

No problem at all, but you should limit the charge current to 15A when doing this and the mains adapter should have a short circuit and temperature protection.

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nimanama avatar image nimanama commented ·

Great. Good to be assured.

Shouldn't most adapters have this short circuit and heat protection?

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porcini avatar image porcini nimanama commented ·

They should, but you'd better check. In theory if the power supply can deliver its nominal current and voltage continously, there is nothing to worry about.

19.5V*16,9A/14,4V=22,9A. So the charger won't use more than 90% of the nominal power but will throttle to <20A. Anyway i wouldn't use it at its limit.

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nimanama avatar image nimanama porcini commented ·

Thanks, Porcini. So with what you imply at the end, I should limit the charge current, say to 15A -like what was mentioned in the first comment. Thanks for your time.

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