diy solar

diy solar

24 volt van build

ok, makes sense. So I should upgrade to a Victron 250/60 solar charge controller to be on the safe side. Does that sound right? Thank you!
ok, great. So instead of the EPEver mppt at 40 amps, I should get something like the Victron 250v/60a mppt solar charger which has a max pv open circuit voltage of 250v. My 3, 24 volt, 200 watt solar panels in series are rated at 139.8 @ 25 degreesC (46.6v per panel). Does that sound correct?
Mine are 60A 150vdc mppt charge controllers but even a 40A 150v would be ok (250v has got more headroom and would allow adding a fourth series panel later if space permits) 60A is a bit overkill with only 600W on a 24v battery bank- a 60A one can handle 1500W of panels at 24v!!!
Upside- a 60A 250v controller is running WAAY under its maximum limits and would have a nice 'lazy' life, no stress... so long service life compared to a unit running 'flat out' all day every day...
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The 'overhead' I prefer to have is a little low on a 150v controller on your panels though (I personally prefer to keep the combined Vocs 20% under the PVmax- your particular panels are crowding that a bit more than I like at 139.8v at STC (20% headroom on a 150v max is 0.8 x 150v = 120v)- 'probably ' wouldn't be a problem where I live, but if you get a lot of snow where you are, the cold weather increases production greatly, and it could become an issue...
(I have the opposite problem- summer is my poorest production time almost- basically equal to winter here- with air temps over 40C(100F) for weeks on end and panel temps rising past 80C, just when i run the A/C, my panels have dropped from a rated 250W down to 195W due to the heat...)
 
What about 3 victron 75/15... one on each panel. A bit odd, but saves money and has redundancy. They can be had for 67$ each. 🤷‍♂️
 
It gives redundancy yes, but your 'poor weather conditions' performance will be reduced in comparison (even in good conditions, your total daily generation will be down a little bit in comparison to a high voltage string array..)
(and your total cost is about what one of the Sigineer controllers I use cost me lol, rated at 150vdc 60A)
 
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