Watt Meter Wiring

Zakarume
Zakarume Solar Expert Posts: 143 ✭✭
in Solar Beginners Corner #1
I have a watt meter and i am trying to wire it in so i can see how many watts coming in and battery volts and so on. I have a source side and a load side. I have a Renogy Charge controller. How do i wire it in to get theses reading?
1460 Watts Solar @24v. 675 AH Battery Bank using 12 6v Trojan T-105. 1 Midnite Classic 150. 1500 Watt 24v Samlex Pure Sine Inverter
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,642 admin
    #2
    Re: Watt Meter Wiring

    What brand/model of Watt meter? Do you have a shunt (precision resistor)?

    There are a lot of different ones out there.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Zakarume
    Zakarume Solar Expert Posts: 143 ✭✭
    #3
    Re: Watt Meter Wiring

    I have a Renogy Watt Meter. And charge controller. I am only using a small solar power system.

    http://www.renogy-store.com/30-amp-charge-controller-p/ctrl-pwm30.htm

    http://www.renogy-store.com/product-p/trcrmtr-mt-150.htm
    1460 Watts Solar @24v. 675 AH Battery Bank using 12 6v Trojan T-105. 1 Midnite Classic 150. 1500 Watt 24v Samlex Pure Sine Inverter
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  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,642 admin
    #4
    Re: Watt Meter Wiring

    I could not find any useful specifications--But I would hard pressed to put much more than 20 amps or so through that device (assuming something like 14 AWG to 12 AWG wiring--You may be able to pull upwards of 100 amp peak--very short time frames).

    Take a look at the documentation on this site--These meters should work similarly:

    http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/docs/wu100v2_user_manual.pdf

    http://www.rc-electronics-usa.com/meter-connections.html

    I do not know about the Renogy meter--But the RC meters only read "one direction"--They only add to AH/WH readings, they do not go "up" when charging and go "down" when discharging (as I understand).

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
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  • Plowman
    Plowman Solar Expert Posts: 203 ✭✭✭✭✭
    #5
    Re: Watt Meter Wiring

    I have a couple similar meters.

    It's easy enough to use them to measure the amps the charge controller is putting into the batteries, plus voltage. In this case, the "source" is the charge controller, the "load" is the batteries. These meters are connnected to both positive and negative wires.

    I put Anderson Powerpoles on my in-line meters to make them easy to move around, I believe I used the 45 amp. I wouldn't run 45 amps through them, though, these meters are meant for low amperage applications. Mine heats up and the screen starts to go dark if there's too many amps going through it.
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