My charge controller shows red when battery is charged

felaray111
felaray111 Registered Users Posts: 2
my charge controller indicator shows red signal when connected to battery even when the battery is fully charged

Comments

  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Any brand/model information about your charge controller?

    For the most part, smaller/less expensive charge controllers are not field repairable.

    If the controller's LED worked opposite (say green when battery was low, red when battery was charged), there was one popular controller from Morningstar where the LED fell out and the user plugged it in backwards--All he had to do was rotate it 180 degrees to work correctly.

    One other thing--Many solar charge controllers need you to connect to the battery first (and the battery needs to be near its rated voltage, not below 10 volts or over 17 volts for a 12 volt battery), then connect the solar panel array. If you connect the panel first, then the battery bank second, sometimes the charge controller will auto select the wrong battery voltage.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • felaray111
    felaray111 Registered Users Posts: 2
    the controller is 12/24v pwm contrroller 
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    There are hundreds, if not thousands, of PWM solar charge controller brands/models out there... Few of them are repairable.

    Did it ever work correctly? Or is this a new install? Did you try 1. disconnect solar array to charge controller, 2. disconnect battery connection to charge controller, 3. wait a couple minutes, 4. connect charge controller to battery, 5. connect solar array to charge controller?

    What is the voltage reading of the battery bank right now?

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • Johann
    Johann Solar Expert Posts: 245 ✭✭✭
    edited September 2016 #5
    Is it possible that the battery is hooked up backwards to the charge controller ?  hook plus to plus and minus to minus.
    Is your nominal battery voltage and nominal solar panel voltage the same? Some charge controller do not like a mismatch.
  • Marc Kurth
    Marc Kurth Solar Expert Posts: 1,142 ✭✭✭✭
    my charge controller indicator shows red signal when connected to battery even when the battery is fully charged

    How are you determining that the battery is fully charged? This is important.
     

    I always have more questions than answers. That's the nature of life.