diy solar

diy solar

200W on the roof, sunny, 12:00 PM, only showing 1-2W

tjoiner1986

New Member
Joined
Jan 10, 2022
Messages
83
Location
Sheffield, AL
  • LiFePo battery - 280 Ah, four Eve cells
  • 150A JBD smart BMS
  • Victron 100/30 SmartSolar MPPT
  • Victron Smart Shunt
The only appliance that I run regularly is an Iceco VL60D fridge. It was plugged in but the compressor was not running when the screenshot below was taken.

I'm not sure what is going on here but the Victron app is only showing 1-2 watts from the charge controller. I have two 100 watt panels on the roof, it's been sunny today, and the current time is 12:20 PM. Sun is directly overhead.

I acknowledge that I may be misreading everything and that what I'm seeing is normal but this doesn't seem right to me.

Screenshot_20220521-120515.png
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure what is going on here but the Victron app is only showing 1-2 watts from the charge controller. I have two 100 watt panels on the roof, it's been sunny today, and the current time is 12:20 PM. Sun is directly overhead.

I acknowledge that I may be misreading everything and that what I'm seeing is normal but this doesn't seem right to me.

View attachment 95358
Battery type? I'd say your battery is fully charged, put a load on it for a bit and see if you pull current from the panels after.
 
If you have lithium batteries that are fully charged, this could be correct if the batteries are charged and no load.

With a panel voltage of 19.68, that is a good thing and is about normal for my two of my 100 watt panels set up. I will get that voltage with next to no current or even no current when the batteries are fully charged and no load.

However, if your batteries are at 20%, or you have a load on, something could be wrong.
 
Ah, I see. So I should really only see wattage when there's a load. That makes sense now that I think about it.

The battery is a LiFePo pack, 4 cell, 280 Ah, yadda yadda... I've got an Iceco VL60D connected but at the time the compressor wasn't running. I think when running at max it can draw up to 65 watts.

Thanks for clearing this up everyone.
 
The charge controller will reduce solar output when the battery is charged, im assuming you have lead acid as Lifepo4 would show 14.2 and "State" shows Float, When charging it will show "Bulk"
 
With my 280 ah cells, I decided to charge and float at the same voltage.

Float used to be lower. I found out first thing in the morning the panels would start to charge the batteries and enter bulk mode. This wen on until it hit a quick absorption and then entered float. What would happen though is the panels would not produce the amount of power I used after it entered float mode and I had a load. If it was a 300 watt load, the panels would make 100 watts, but the batteries would pull 200 watts. This left me going into the night having a lower state of charge than I wanted. I bumped up the Float by .1 volt until the panels would charge my batteries.
 
Is this the first time you run the system?
Did you ever see higher Wattage reading before?
 
The charge controller will reduce solar output when the battery is charged, im assuming you have lead acid as Lifepo4 would show 14.2 and "State" shows Float, When charging it will show "Bulk"
Negative. It's a 280 amphour pack composed of four Eve cells with a 150 JBD smart BMS.

The link in my signature below will take you to the progress thread I've been updating with details, tech specs, etc. for the last several months.

?????
 
Last edited:
With my 280 ah cells, I decided to charge and float at the same voltage.

Float used to be lower. I found out first thing in the morning the panels would start to charge the batteries and enter bulk mode. This wen on until it hit a quick absorption and then entered float. What would happen though is the panels would not produce the amount of power I used after it entered float mode and I had a load. If it was a 300 watt load, the panels would make 100 watts, but the batteries would pull 200 watts. This left me going into the night having a lower state of charge than I wanted. I bumped up the Float by .1 volt until the panels would charge my batteries.
I'm coming from a super simple lead acid (AGM) setup where I never had to bother with setting float voltages, etc. so this is all VERY new to me.
 
Is this the first time you run the system?
Did you ever see higher Wattage reading before?
I closed all the breakers earlier this week but today is the first that I've started running the fridge which is really the only appliance connected that runs constantly. So I guess yeah, you might as well say this is the first time. I've seen as high as 3 watts.
 
Just wanted to post what kind of numbers I'm getting when the fridge is running. The first screenshot is the BMS while the latter is the shunt. This was yesterday at about 6:30 PM. The sun had not set yet but it was cloudy and rainy. The charge controller (not pictured) still showed only a couple of watts but this shows something very different.

Screenshot_20220522-184828.png

Screenshot_20220522-185202.png
 
Back
Top