How to charge a 48v battery pack with 36v of mismatched 12v PV panels?
 

Let's say that someone had 155w worth of PV panels (consisting of three panels of different sizes, each designed for 12v), and they wanted to try using them to maintain/trickle a 48v string of 6v batteries.

How could this be approached that didn't require disconnecting/reconfiguring the batteries within the 48v pack?

I wonder if it's possible to parallel the panels (sums their different amperages) and set up some kind of timer/relay that directs the charge sequentially to pairs of 6v batteries in a kind of rotation.

It would need to rotate through the pairs of batteries relatively quickly, like once a minute, since the goal would be to apply an even amount of charge to each pair of 6v batts, rather than fully charge one pair, then move on to the next, etc. IE - not cause the pack to get out of balance.

You need a boost converter ;)

like this, only bigger

Over on wiki
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boost_converter

The cost is slightly lower charging rates....

It *might* be possible to reconfigure the PV panels so they make 48+ volts.

How long do you think it would take you to charge? Or is this just to take the edge off of the house charging a bit?

Build a windmill?