Scratching my head wondering why the solar isn't keeping up.

I think one of the most important items you can install is that shunt based battery monitor!!! - that you already have (and should have been installed a long time ago.

That will tell how how much power you are making and how much you are using. Something is not right in your system.

With that much solar and batteries, you should have no issues making it through the night.

One other tool that you probably need is a Digital Multimeter with clamp on current like this:

Klein Tools CL320 Digital Clamp Meter, HVAC AC Auto-ranging 400A, AC/DC Voltage, TRMS, DC Microamps, Resistance, Frequency, NCVT, Temp, More https://a.co/d/iPx4kRP

I have a Klein like that one - there are other cheaper ones - I just don’t know how good they are.

With this you can see how much current is flowing down a wire for example:
It’s sunny and I should be making lots of solar power - but is the current flowing? Now you can know.

You need some trouble shooting in your system- is power flowing to the first battery - is it flowing to the last battery- are those two current amounts the same?

Good Luck

400bird said:

OP needs more solar (or less loads). There's no proof that their batteries are bad, just excessive.
Them not making it through the night is a function of not putting enough energy in. There's only 4000 watts of solar for something like 30kWh of battery. 30 kWh of battery that maybe has balance issues due to the order of connections and layout of battery cables.


That link is no proof and is not a reliable source of information. Heck, they can't even proofread their pages. Both spelling and nonsense sentence. What could "has been in right connected" mean?

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Yeah that article is not written the best, but it makes the point. Most likely it was translated from a Chinese company, but hey most of these batteries are Chinese. I have yet to see any manufacturer recommend the practice of continually adding different age and brand batteries to the same string.

He says hes only using 400watts and charging with 4000watts of panels, where is all that energy going?

400bird said:

The ratio of 4kW of solar to 32kWh of storage is unusual light on solar in my opinion.

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This is basically my setup I like it for preparedness more than usefulness.

I have about 22.5kWh of storage charged by about 1.5kW of solar because I don't care if it takes the rest of the week to recharge after I use it on the weekend.

ScrotusGobbleBottom said:

This is basically my setup I like it for preparedness more than usefulness.

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What's the point of being prepared if it's not useful ?

Quattrohead said:

What's the point of being prepared if it's not useful

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Quattrohead said:

What's the point of being prepared if it's not useful ?

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I don't recall saying it wasn't useful. It sure saves me $90 / month in the summer.