313

8th International Conference on Electrical and Computer Engineering

20-22 December, 2014, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Testing and Performance Analysis of Charge

Controllers for Solar Home System
Manik Dautta*, Syed Mohammad Sifat Morshed Chowdhury, Md. Rashed Hassan Bipu, Md. Zulkar Nain and
Shahidul Islam Khan
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh
*
mnkdautta8@gmail.com

Abstract Charge controller is the heart of a Solar Home

System (SHS) which controls the charging and discharging of
battery from photovoltaic (PV) module. This paper analyzes test
results of fifteen charge controllers available in Bangladesh
according to the specification of Infrastructure Development
Company Limited (IDCOL). The different parameters are
battery high voltage disconnect (HVD), low voltage disconnect
(LVD)/ reconnect, short circuit protection etc. It is found that
eight charge controllers meet the technical specifications of
IDCOL. There is also a study of different features of the charge
controllers. Finally a brief discussion on further improvement of
charge controller is presented.
Index Terms Solar Photovoltaic, Solar home system,
Charge controllers, Testing, IDCOL.

CHARGE CONTROLLER

DC SOURCE

+88.8

Battery

1V

Volts

Panel

R1
10k
Load

A m ps

978-1-4799-4166-7/14/$31.00 2014 IEEE

A. Low Voltage Disconnect (LVD)

If deep discharge occurs, it will cause some battery damage.
Every time this happens, both the capacity and the life of the
battery will be reduced by a small amount. If the battery sits in
this over discharged state for days or weeks at a time, it can be
ruined quickly. So, LVD is necessary to protect the battery.

+8 8 .8

I. INTRODUCTION
A solar charge controller is needed in virtually all solar PV
systems that utilize batteries. The job of the solar charge
controller is to regulate the power going from the solar panels
to the batteries. The most basic function of a charge controller
is to prevent battery overcharging. If battery is allowed to
routinely overcharge, their life expectancy will be
dramatically reduced [1]. A charge controller will sense the
battery voltage, and reduce or stop the charging current when
the voltage gets high enough. This is especially important with
sealed lead acid battery where we cannot replace the water
that is lost during overcharging [2]. There are some other
functions that a charge controller performs such that
preventing battery over-discharge, protecting from electrical
overload, and maximum power tracking etc.
To fulfil the basic electricity requirement in the rural areas
of Bangladesh, IDCOL has introduced solar program. With
support from International Development Association (IDA)
and Global Environment Facility (GEF), IDCOL provides
both grant and refinancing to solar energy projects in rural
areas. IDCOL provides grants to lower costs of solar home
system (SHS) and also offers soft loans to the partner
organizations. To coordinate the program, Technical Standard
Committee (TSC) has been formed with members from
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
(BUET), Rural Electrification Board (REB), Local
Government Engineering Department (LGED) and IDCOL.
TSC determine the technical standards for the equipments
such as solar panel; charge controller, battery etc. of solar
home system. The equipment that is not approved by TSC is
ineligible for IDCOL grants and refinance. In local market all
available charge controller are not approved by IDCOL.
Collected charge controllers are tested according to the
standards given by IDCOL.

II. CHARGE CONTROLLER TESTS AND ANALYSIS

For a solar system, the controller must comply with the
technical standards provided by TSC of IDCOL in Bangladesh.
The sample charge controllers are taken from Partner
Organizations (PO) of IDCOL. Some foreign manufactured
charge controllers are also collected for testing purpose.
Performances of these sample charge controllers are measured
to inspect the conformity to the specifications provided by the
IDCOL [3]. Low voltage disconnect /reconnect(LVD), Battery
high voltage disconnect, current handling capacity, self
current consumption, short circuit protection, over current
protection etc. were measured.

CCT001

Fig. 1 Circuit connection for LVD disconnect/reconnect test

For measurement of LVD disconnect/reconnect voltage

circuit was connected as Figure 1.
1) Disconnect Voltage: When the state of charge of battery
is reduced below the specified level then charge controller
disconnects load from battery. Test result of different samples
is shown graphically in Figure 2.
According to the IDCOL standard, LVD disconnect
voltage is 11.60.1 V. So the sample no.04, sample no.09 and
sample no.12 did not comply with the specification.

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current. When the current reading of Ammeter was 0Amp,

reading of the Voltmeter was taken.

CHARGE CONTROLLER

+88.8
Amps

Battery

BATTERY
14V

+88.8
Volts

DC SOURCE
18V

Panel
-

Load
-

Fig. 2 LVD disconnect voltage

CCT001

Fig. 4 Circuit connection for HVD test

2) Reconnect Voltage: When battery voltage rises up to a

specified level then charge controller automatically reconnect
the load with battery. Reconnect voltage for different samples
is shown in Figure 3.

Measured battery high voltage disconnect voltages are

shown in Figure 5.

Fig. 5 High voltage disconnect voltage (HVD)

Fig. 3 LVD reconnect voltage

According to IDCOL standard, LVD reconnect voltage is

12.60.2 V. So the sample no.04, sample no.09 and sample
no.12 did not comply the specification.
B. High Voltage Disconnect (HVD)
When a battery reaches full charge, it can no longer store
incoming energy. If energy continues to be applied at the full
rate, the battery voltage gets too high. There is excessive loss
of water, and a chance that the gasses can ignite and cause a
small explosion. The battery will also degrade rapidly and
may possibly overheat. Preventing overcharge is simply a
matter of reducing the flow of energy to the battery. That is
why at a specified battery voltage the battery is disconnected
from solar panel to stop current flow for charging.
The circuit was connected as Figure 4. The DC source
voltage was higher than the battery and supplying sufficient

According to the IDCOL specification, HVD is 14.30.2 V.

From graphical representation it is seen that sample no.03,
sample no.04, sample no.11, sample no.12 and sample no.13
didnt comply this. Although sample no.03, sample no.04 and
sample no.11 did not comply with the specification they have
high voltage disconnect. But sample no.12 and sample no.13
did not have HVD feature.
C. LVD Maximum Current Handling Capability
According to IDCOL standard, The LVD must be capable
of handling at least 150 percent of the maximum expected
continuous load. From the analysis it has been found that 150
percent of maximum expected continuous load was attained at
a slightly higher voltage than LVD voltage for all the sample
charge controllers. This complies with the standard given by
TSC.
Circuit was connected as Figure 6. Keeping the DC source
voltage at 11.7 V the Pot1, Pot2 and the Current knob of DC

315

source were varied until the Ammeter reading became 150%

of the maximum expected load. Then the charge controller
was observed whether it was capable of carrying this load.
CHARGE CONTROLLER
DC SOURCE

14V

Battery

Circuit was connected as Figure 6. Keeping the DC source

voltage at 14 V, Pot1, Pot2 and the Current knob of DC source
were varied so that the Ammeter reading became 12A.
Observation was made for 1 hour.
Over current protection for sample no.02, sample no.03 and
sample no.04 were below the 120% of rated current. So they
didnt comply with this standard but they have set points at
different value.

F. Self Current Consumption

Every electrical device having MOSFET, BJT requires
some current for internal circuitry. For charge controller self
current consumption should be less then 20mA when no LED
is on and it should be less then 50mA when one LED is on.

Panel
-

+88.8
Amps

CCT001

RV1
52%

RV2

CHARGE CONTROLLER

50%

Load

10

10

BATTERY
12V

Fig. 6 Circuit connection for measuring current flow

All samples complied with IDCOL standard.

Battery

V1
1V

+88.8
Volts

Panel

Amps

+88.8

D. Over Current Protection

There must be a protection against excessive current flows
through the load to protect it from damage. If not, then the
circuit of charge controller will be damaged.
Resistances of both the potentiometer of Figure 6 were
decreased so that total Resistance became very low. An
Ammeter reading was taken at the moment of Load Out.
Testing results are shown in Figure 7.

R1
10k
Load

CCT001

Fig. 8 Circuit connection for measuring self current consumption

Voltage at the panel side of Figure 8 was increased to

maximum limit at which no LED was on and reading of the
ammeter was taken. Then it was increased further so that one
LED was on and reading of the ammeter was taken.
All samples complied with this specification.

Fig. 7 Current at the moment of load out

As current rating for different charge is different, scale is

not unique. From graphical representation it was seen that
sample no.09, sample no.11 and sample no.13 did not have
over current protection.
E. Current Handling Capability
According to IDCOL standard charge controller must
handle 120% of rated current for 1 hour without any damage.

G. Short Circuit Protection

Short circuit can cause overheating and can even be a fire
hazard. Short circuit protection is mandatory at the load
terminal according to the IDCOL standard. If load is short
circuited then charge controller disconnects the load.
Circuit was connected as Figure 4 where load is short
circuited by a thick wire having low resistance. The Load was
out for satisfactory protection.
To protect load as well as charge controller unit every
sample should include short circuit protection. Sample no.09
sample no.12 and sample no.13 didnt comply with this
specification.
H. Reverse Polarity Protection
There may be opposite polarity connection at the panel side
and at the battery side. IDCOL specifies it as a mandatory to
have protection against reverse polarity so that no current
flows from any direction.
The circuits were connected as Figure 9 and the Charge
controller was observed whether there was any damage.
All samples complied with this specification.

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charge controller we found that, sample no. 5, 6 and 8 are

PWM controllers. Others are On-off controllers.
Some extra features were observed during the testing
process. Sample no. 5 has acoustic load disconnect prewarning which sounds an alarm before disconnecting the load.
Sample no. 6 has a built in cell phone charger which is very
useful in the area where grid electricity is not available.
Sample no. 6 and 7 are built using surface mounted
technology which promises higher reliability and performance.

Fig. 9 Circuit connection for reverse polarity protection

I. Reverse Current Leakage Protection

PV works by pumping current through battery in one
direction. When battery voltage goes higher than panel side
voltage, the panels may pass a bit of current in the reverse
direction, causing a slight discharge from the battery.
CHARGE CONTROLLER
DC SOURCE

14V

Battery
-

BATERRY
14V

+88.8

Panel

Amps

+88.8
Amps

Load
CCT001

Fig. 10 Circuit connection for reverse current leakage protection

The DC source voltage of Figure 10 was higher than the

battery voltage. Reading of both Ammeters were taken. Zero
or very low reading indicates the protection was OK on both
Panel and Battery side. According to IDCOL this leakage
current should be 0Amp or very low.
All samples complied with this standard of IDCOL.
III. FEATURES OF OBSERVED CHARGE CONTROLLERS
According to connection, charge controllers can be of two
types such as shunt controller and series controller. The series
charge controller is connected in series between the solar
panel and battery. The controller disconnects the battery from
the panel by opening the switch. But shunt controller is
connected in parallel to the battery and the load. When battery
is fully charged, the controller interrupts current supply to the
battery by making the panel short-circuited [1]. Among the
charge controller we tested, all except sample no. 2 were
series controllers. Sample no. 2 was shunt controller.
There are three types of charge controller such as ON-OFF,
PWM and MPPT based charge controller. After testing the

IV. FURTHER IMPROVEMENT

Among the tested charge controllers, only three were PWM
charge controllers, where others are ON/OFF controller.
Literature [4], [5] shows that PWM charging increases the
charging efficiency and battery life. So, this technique should
be implemented in the charge controllers. Also it was found
that in some controllers, negative terminals of the panel and
the battery have to be shorted for starting the controller. This
common negative grounding feature helps to detect wrong
connection at any of the terminals. This feature may be
included in all the charge controllers.
It was also found that locally built charge controllers do not
have maximum power point tracking (MPPT) system. This
can increase the output of the solar panel from 10 to 30
percent. Though it needs an efficient DC-DC converter and
capable microprocessor which are costly, it may be cost
effective for larger systems.
V. CONCLUSIONS
Solar Home System (SHS) has become an effective and
viable solution for the current energy crisis in Bangladesh. As
a major component of solar home system, the performance of
charge controller plays a vital role in the growth and
popularity of solar PV system. In this paper, we randomly
collected fifteen charge controllers available in the local
market produced by both local and foreign manufacturer. We
systematically tested these charge controllers and compared
against the specification set by IDCOL. The testing data are
presented in this paper. Some deviations were found from the
standard values which can cause severe underperformance of
solar home system. It was found that efficiency and
performance of PWM charge controller is better in
Bangladesh. Future work should incorporate large scale
testing and evaluation of the locally available charge
controllers at regular interval.
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[1]
[2]

[3]
[4]
[5]

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Cooperation (GIZ), March 2013..
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Components Qualification Testing Procedure and Its Effect in
Bangladesh Perspective, IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology
Conference (GHTC), pp. 381 386, October 2012, Seattle, WA.
IDCOL (2012), Technical Specifications for Solar Home System
(SHS), Available at: http://www.idcol.org/publications.php , (Accessed:
18 December 2013).
Lam, L.T., et al, Pulsed-current charging of lead/acid batteries-a
possible means for overcoming premature capacity loss CSIRO,
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Hund, Tom, Battery Testing for Photovoltaic Applications, Sandia
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