Best Of

Charge Controllers and Max Array Watts

I am looking to add a 3rd array to my system. I have 10 Trina 250 watt panels available. I currently use 2 FM60s on my other arrays and have a Mate3 for monitoring/programming. The specs for the FM80 I am looking at, say max array is 2000 watts and max amps are 80.The panels are rated at 8.85amps short circuit current which would exceed the 80amps. I planned to have 5 strings of 2 panels each to come in at 44.25amps. But the array wattage would still exceed the 2000 specified. Would I be safe in going foward?

RickR

0 ·

Re: Under performing LiPo

Thanks for responding. The batteries are Renogy lithium iron phosphate LiFePo4. The main question I have is, why on the occasions when The bank does get above 12.8v it seems to lose voltage very quickly. Example, last night Before I parked for the night at around 9:30 I went for a ride and charge the batteries up to 13.1V, (12.9 when I turned the charger off) I turned off my fridge and had only my Maxxair fan and one LED light on. I had to run the engine/charger at 1:30ish because the voltage had dropped to 11.8 and experience has been that won’t make it through the rest of the night without shutting down. So from 9:30 to 1:30 my vent fan and one 15 watt LED took my bank from 12.9v to 11.8v. I may be wrong but that seems excessive.
As for adding panels to my array I sized the charge controller so that I can add two more 100 watt panels but as I said in my post I’m laid off now so that’s not an option. Thanks again for responding.

onebad

5 ·

Re: Battery damage in one night of low voltage?

12 volts for one night is not that bad. Everyone is acting like it went stone cold dead. Guessing Prius has a feature that shuts off drain when flashers run battery down to ~ 12 volts.

I'd have thought led flashers would be a smaller drain. Then again, Prius employs a small battery. I suspect that capacitors spend a second or two driving up the power level when starting. It always waits a second or two then boom - instant start. Doesn't crank at all. Just hesitates then starts. Prius are a bit odd. Recommend for city driving though - that is where Prius really shines.

softdown

0 ·

Re: Undercharged Battery Bank? Low Specific Gravity

jonr: Yes, the Conext 4024 is an inverter/charger.

Estragon: The panels are 2-3 feet from the CC with 6AWG cable. I measured the voltage coming into the CC at the combiners: 40.3 volts. It has been overcast/snowing the past two days however. Probably won't be full sun until 2 days from now.

BB: I will eventually get the panels and CC upgraded, but given the costs, I'm looking for short-term solution. Using your figures, if I remove one string from the bank, I can get a 10%+ rate of charge with one additional panel giving me a 1,920 watt array. I can run my house on the two strings. The bank I had before was 625AH and that was adequate. 24 volts would also be ok for that size bank, agreed?

Someone suggested that I charge the batteries one string at a time to get them to full charge. That seems like a good suggestion. After that I could remove one of the strings. If I do that, I would move the 4 batteries to my storage shed for a stable ambient temp. I could keep fully charged batteries in storage for a few months, I believe. What do you think?

Skipmca

5 ·

Re: Split phase or Single phase ?

Bill

Thank you very much now I get it.

billybob9

5 ·

Re: Victron disconnect quirk causing temperature sensor failure?

Problem fixed. It was a hardware problem. Fixed by service center. Issue resolved.

Saipro

5 ·

Re: Retired, Want to Go Off Grid Because of High Cost of Electricity

Try looking into Home Nuclear.

NANOcontrol

5 ·

Grounding

No solar. 15 amp shore or generator to run Genius2 which charges battery(s). Should shore connection be grounded to frame? Should inverter be grounded to frame? Should leisure battery be grounded to frame? When shore available, separate outlets available to run TV etc. If grounded to frame it would be only connection to DC system.

sandebagger2u

5 ·

Fridge is surge overloading inverter

Yeah, just like it says, when the fridge kicks on, my inverter sometimes goes into an errored state and needs to be turned off in order to recover. The inverter is rated at a constant 1000w and can surge to 2000w. The load on it when the fridge is running is only at 200w, so I'm guessing it's surging over 1800w to cause the tripped inverter.

I need to come up with a plan around this error. What I have in mind is getting a UPS for a computer which has a battery backup in it good for 30 mins. When the fridge first kicks on, I want it to utilize the juice inside the UPS for its surge instead of the inverter. Anyone have any suggestions on which ones do this? I know not all UPS's allow you take a pull off the batteries if it has power coming in. Or maybe there's a better idea someone has to work around this issue?

flighthouse

6 ·

Dipping my toe into solar energy.

Hi all.Been lurking for awhile.This site is a wealth of info.I have a small system that's been running about a year and a half.So far so good.I have 4 100watt panels wired in parallel feeding Tristar 45 charging 2 12 volt 50 AH agm batteries wired in parallel. A suresine 300 watt inverter gets some use.I now know these batteries should be 6 volt wired in series.I use max 500WH in the summer and almost nothing in winter--3 led lights and occasionally a trickle charger for lawn mower battery.Looks like I have enough charging capacity to upgrade to 6 volt 225 AH batteries.A couple days last summer my batteries got down to 12.2 volts--the reason for battery upgrade.Will my system work year round?.Do I have to exercise the batteries during winter or will they be happy just sitting with almost no DOD other than self discharge? I'm at 42 degrees latitude and the panels are angled at 22 degrees--roof pitch.I know the angle isn't good for winter but it is ok for summer when most of the energy will be used.I'm running a 12 volt cooler that uses 464 WH per day--manufacturer's number, not measured and 3 10 watt led lights,sometimes a small radio and a phone charger.If all goes well we would like to build a larger system.Thanks in advance for all opinions.

cheers kent

Kenth

5 ·