Want to run a 12v fish tank pump of solar.

[Amy@altE]

Just confirmed, the table on Page 3 of the manual says the max load current for the SS-6L is 6A, for SS-10L is 10A, for SS-20L is 20A.

[SunEagle]

Just confirmed, the table on Page 3 of the manual says the max load current for the SS-6L is 6A, for SS-10L is 10A, for SS-20L is 20A.

I must have missed that info. Thanks for finding it.

You are correct the OP can use even the small 6A CC for his pump since it is only rated 350ma.

I just wanted to make it clear to other readers that a CC will normally not control the operation of the "load" if the battery voltage gets low. That is because most "loads" are connected directly to the battery weather they are AC inverters or DC powered equipment.

[Amy@altE]

I must have missed that info. Thanks for finding it.

You are correct the OP can use even the small 6A CC for his pump since it is only rated 350ma.

I just wanted to make it clear to other readers that a CC will normally not control the operation of the "load" if the battery voltage gets low. That is because most "loads" are connected directly to the battery weather they are AC inverters or DC powered equipment.

Exactly, the Load Control option on some charge controllers will turn off only what small DC loads are connected to the charge controller, that then passes the DC voltage through to the connected load. Its intended use is to have something like a light connected to it, so if you accidentally leave it on, it will turn it off to save the battery. It will not turn it back on until the battery is charged up enough. In this example, since his load is a non-critical pump, I'd rather have the pump turn off automatically if he has a stretch of bad weather that does not charge up the battery, than a dead battery.

[Helimadness]

Isc is the max current output under Standard Test Conditions (STC) without a load on it. You want to use that x 1.25 to determine the size charge controller you need. You can go bigger, but not smaller.

The number of hours you use to calculate output are number that equals the output of STC, not the number of hours the sun is up. As you know, the sun is much brighter at noon as it is at sunrise, so not all hours are equal. In Qingdoa, that ranges from 4.23 - 5.55 sun hours. It takes local weather conditions into account, but that's a good question about pollution, I wonder if it accounts for that as well. http://solarelectricityhandbook.com/...rradiance.html

Thanks for the replies all very helpful.
Received the panels last night and hooked up quickly. As expected inside only produced about 3v. Got to 7v with my phone LED flash pointed at them
This morning on my way out the door at 730 am I checked and got about 11v but not enough to kick the motor in. That is just after sun up but.
Thanks for that link on the sun hours / day. Very interesting and helpful.

The pollution is monitored fairly closely here these days. http://aqicn.org/city/qingdao/
Today is good. Over the weekend PM2.5 was in the 300's Certainly cuts a lot of sun out. Will see if I can measure max performance on a clear day and crap day.

Assume voltage and current performance output is fairly directly related to sun input? Or is it better to measure the performance by just voltage or current output? Or can you just measure voltage output and the current will be relative to that? Assume as they are rated at 6v (I have 2 in series so 12v) there listed current output is at 6v. What would be the max voltage I would expect to see in absolute best case?

Cheers