Anker Powerhouse 767 Solar input Challenge!

[SkylinesSuck]

Sweet! Thanks man. I appreciate you getting the info out there for the 767.

 

[Clearlake23]

I originally posted this in the wrong thread. This is my entry for the solar input challenge.

I may be pushing things a bit here. We have a 767. For solar charging I want to put two Longi 545w panels in parallel, VOC 49.65, ISC 13.92. Together they will be 1090w. The amps will be over the 20 A limit at almost 28 amps, but as the Anker will only draw 20 max, that seems okay. The VOC is 49.65. The cost for the 2 panels is $754 Canadian, plus $55 for the mc4 to xt60 adapter. One Anker 200w panel here is $750, plus shipping. I think the only concern may be when the temperature drops below -25 Celsius and the VOC goes up. I am thinking in that case I will unplug the solar and charge with a generator until it warms up. Is my thinking correct? Is this too much?

 

[Clearlake23]

The 1000 watt limit isn't the one you need to worry about. It's the 60v VOC limit that complicates things. My goal is to stay under 60v VOC with a margin for temp compensation but to produce as much wattage as possible for the least amount of money. It really wouldn't matter if your panels made more than 1000 watts which is referred to as "overpaneling". The Anker 767 is only gonna draw slightly more than 20amps. You can spend hours coming up with panel combinations to try and max out the 767 and honestly, I was hoping someone would come up with a better and cheaper combination than I did but thus far, I haven't seen one.

The Qcells are nice panels but they are big and heavy and fairly cumbersome to move around for one person. They are also bifacial and won't work well on a roof. Mine have worked very well with the simple ground mount I built.

BTW, the Anker "draws" the AMPs not the panels. They also make 485 and 490 watt versions of this panel but I was unable to locate them. I purchased my panels from CED Greentech and picked them up in person. It's very expensive to ship panels. Greentech has locations across the country and many of them offer counter sales (some are wholesale only).

This is the most helpful post I have read so far about solar charging a 767. I have a set up which is over the recommended watts at 1090 and the recommended amps at 27. From what I have understood, this set up will still work, as the VOC is under the 60 volts (49.65). Is this so? I realise I will have to watch the outdoor temperatures, as we can get -40 in winter here.

 

[watchdoc]

This is the most helpful post I have read so far about solar charging a 767. I have a set up which is over the recommended watts at 1090 and the recommended amps at 27. From what I have understood, this set up will still work, as the VOC is under the 60 volts (49.65). Is this so? I realise I will have to watch the outdoor temperatures, as we can get -40 in winter here.

Please describe your panels and how they are wired.

 

[Clearlake23]

Please describe your panels and how they

Two Longi 545w panels in parallel, VOC 49.65, ISC 13.92. Together they will be 1090w. The amps will be over the 20 A limit at almost 28 amps, but as the Anker will only draw 20 max, that seems okay. The VOC is 49.65. The cost for the 2 panels is $754 Canadian, plus $55 for the mc4 to xt60 adapter. One Anker 200w panel here is $750, plus shipping. I think the only concern may be when the temperature drops below -25 Celsius and the VOC goes up. I am thinking in that case I will unplug the solar and charge with a generator until it warms up. Is my thinking correct? Is this too much?

 

[rgsherr]

So I'm starting this thread for everyone doubting the capabilities of the Anker 767 and it's solar input. My current solar input record is 918 watts with 2 Qcell 480 watt bifacial panels wired in parallel (53.39VOC, 11.12ISC). 2 of these panels cost $576 which is only $27 more than 1 of Anker's 531 200 watt portable panels.

There are soooooooo many YouTube reviews of this unit without posting actual solar input results so I thought this might be helpful to people.

One of the reasons I did this is because it's fairly easy to overpanel and max out the 900 watt solar input of the Bluetti AC200MAX with only 3 350-400 watt panels wired in series but the Anker 767 is more restrictive with the 60V@20amp 1000watt limit. This was the best and least expensive setup I could come up with. I feel confident I can achieve the 1000 watt input limit with some additional albedo and the springtime sun.

Check out the YouTube video I did along with this and post your solar inputs and setups!

Thanks very much Watchdoc for this interesting information on solar panels for the Anker 767. I have one and been looking around for panels and thinking of getting the 2 Qcell panels that you have. I'd like to mount them on the frame of what was a shed greenhouse on the back of the house which is facing south. It would be a vertical placement so I'd probably lose some watts unless I can find a good way to tip the bottom out a bit. Do Do you think this would work? Your ground mount also looks great but since we're at the tail end of hurricane alley here in northern Nova Scotia I'm a bit worried about that. How to you manage in North Carolina?

 

[watchdoc]

Thanks very much Watchdoc for this interesting information on solar panels for the Anker 767. I have one and been looking around for panels and thinking of getting the 2 Qcell panels that you have. I'd like to mount them on the frame of what was a shed greenhouse on the back of the house which is facing south. It would be a vertical placement so I'd probably lose some watts unless I can find a good way to tip the bottom out a bit. Do Do you think this would work? Your ground mount also looks great but since we're at the tail end of hurricane alley here in northern Nova Scotia I'm a bit worried about that. How to you manage in North Carolina?

Well, I lost 2 panels last year during a hurricane so I had to improve my ground anchors. We will see how well it does this year.

Vertical mounting with bi facial panels in a east/west orientation is very interesting. Lots of good videos online with details. Definitely worth a try. You're only talking about 2 panels so experiment and report back with your results. Lots of new higher voltage panels coming on the market as well.

 

[rgsherr]

Well, I lost 2 panels last year during a hurricane so I had to improve my ground anchors. We will see how well it does this year.

Vertical mounting with bi facial panels in a east/west orientation is very interesting. Lots of good videos online with details. Definitely worth a try. You're only talking about 2 panels so experiment and report back with your results. Lots of new higher voltage panels coming on the market as well.

On secondary consideration those Qcells panels are just physically too large for my application. Wondering what the best is anyone has done with 200w panels?

 

[wwu123]

I have the Solix F3800 with similar XT-60 input as the 767. I was thinking if one could use another solar charge controller for 48V batteries, there are inexpensive ones that take Voc input up to say 150V, and the output side would be providing about 50-56V to charge batteries - that would be a good input range for the Anker power stations. But I don't know what interactions there would be between one MPPT charge controller's battery charging algorithms, and the Anker input's MPPT controller, that might cause the Anker to not accept any power in.

Would be great to see someone try this ....

I've been away from these forums for a few months, as well as from F3800 forums, but some interesting things have transpired recently.

First, someone just successfully wired 3 305W (32.5 Vmp) in series (so 90Vmp) to a solar charge controller, and then fed the output of the solar charge controller into the Anker's XT-60 port to charge. Even better, the EASun brand controller they used wasn't limited to standard 48V Li-Ion charging profiles, they could set a user-specific mode and choose 56V as the controller voltage into the Anker. Also, the EASun controller turned on via power solely from the solar inputs, even if the Anker wasn't connected yet to the output ports - this might be key, as I'd heard most solar charge controllers wouldn't power on unless there was a 48V buffer battery attached, basically that they powered their electronics from the battery being charged (the Anker might not be able to provide power or voltage out of the XT-60 port, to mimic a 48V battery to the controller).

Second, in a recent new firmware update for the F3800, the 10A limit below 32V is apparently dropped, so people are able to use a greater variety of solar panels below Vmp of 32V without running into the 10A limit. Unclear how far below 32V this applies though, at some point above 12V they need to drop under 10A to not blow up cigarette lighter 12V fuses. But it certainly allows for more older panels in the 200-350W range that have Vmp in the 25-35V range, which in many real-world conditions the actual operating voltage is below the spec Vmp. This flexiblity might obviate the need to look into the solar charge controller in the first place.

Have any folks with the Anker 767 seen any recent updates like the F3800 folks have?

Even with the 2nd bit of news, I'm still somewhat interested in the solar charge controller to run panels at in series at >60 Vmp, for two reasons:
-reduces having multiple sets of MC4 cables coming down from the roof to the F3800, down to one, by running series rather than parallel, or
-higher voltage means less amps for the same power, which allows for smaller gauge (and cheaper) wire, and less voltage and power line losses, over the 30-50 foot runs I'm look at from the roof to the F3800. At some point, parallel wires have to come together, and 25A (20A for the 767) you need beefy and expensive wire. With the charge controller, you only need the beefy wire from the charge controller output to the F3800 input, which could be made a pretty short run.

 

[watchdoc]

I've been away from these forums for a few months, as well as from F3800 forums, but some interesting things have transpired recently.

First, someone just successfully wired 3 305W (32.5 Vmp) in series (so 90Vmp) to a solar charge controller, and then fed the output of the solar charge controller into the Anker's XT-60 port to charge. Even better, the EASun brand controller they used wasn't limited to standard 48V Li-Ion charging profiles, they could set a user-specific mode and choose 56V as the controller voltage into the Anker. Also, the EASun controller turned on via power solely from the solar inputs, even if the Anker wasn't connected yet to the output ports - this might be key, as I'd heard most solar charge controllers wouldn't power on unless there was a 48V buffer battery attached, basically that they powered their electronics from the battery being charged (the Anker might not be able to provide power or voltage out of the XT-60 port, to mimic a 48V battery to the controller).

Second, in a recent new firmware update for the F3800, the 10A limit below 32V is apparently dropped, so people are able to use a greater variety of solar panels below Vmp of 32V without running into the 10A limit. Unclear how far below 32V this applies though, at some point above 12V they need to drop under 10A to not blow up cigarette lighter 12V fuses. But it certainly allows for more older panels in the 200-350W range that have Vmp in the 25-35V range, which in many real-world conditions the actual operating voltage is below the spec Vmp. This flexiblity might obviate the need to look into the solar charge controller in the first place.

Have any folks with the Anker 767 seen any recent updates like the F3800 folks have?

Even with the 2nd bit of news, I'm still somewhat interested in the solar charge controller to run panels at in series at >60 Vmp, for two reasons:
-reduces having multiple sets of MC4 cables coming down from the roof to the F3800, down to one, by running series rather than parallel, or
-higher voltage means less amps for the same power, which allows for smaller gauge (and cheaper) wire, and less voltage and power line losses, over the 30-50 foot runs I'm look at from the roof to the F3800. At some point, parallel wires have to come together, and 25A (20A for the 767) you need beefy and expensive wire. With the charge controller, you only need the beefy wire from the charge controller output to the F3800 input, which could be made a pretty short run.

Which EA sun controller are you referring to?

 

[wwu123]

Which EA sun controller are you referring to?

I believe it was this one based on the pictures he provided

https://www.easun-energy.com/produc...r-charge-controlller-12v-24v-48v-auto-battery

My understanding from this forum is EASun rebadges other OEM equipment rather than making anything themselves, so I think I also see this particular unit rebadged by several other brands as well....

However, I do believe he might have been mistaken about being able to power on and configure the SCC without a battery attached to the battery terminals, as a few other folks have followed his lead and are using the same, but claim they need a 48V buffer battery to power on the SCC.

 

[AirTayJay]

@watchdoc thank you for all of the knowledge you’ve shared here. I bought a 767 recently and discovered your video and this post. I’ve been learning a lot!

I have an opportunity to buy a couple of new 400W bifacial panels for $125 a piece. The Voc is 37.07V and the Isc is 13.79A each. My thought was to connect these to the 767 in parallel, but I wanted to check with you smart people before I did that.

Is this advisable? Is it worth buying these panels? I intend to use them for other projects in the future but if it’s not worth it then I won’t bother right now.

 

[MGR457]

Watchdoc:

I found three (3) 400W Qcells; Q.Peak Duo BLK ML-G10+ 400 @ $100 each. The Voc is 45.30, the ISC is 11.14. Can I wire all three panels in parallel without any problems to my Anker 767 (2048)?

 

[watchdoc]

Watchdoc:

I found three (3) 400W Qcells; Q.Peak Duo BLK ML-G10+ 400 @ $100 each. The Voc is 45.30, the ISC is 11.14. Can I wire all three panels in parallel without any problems to my Anker 767 (2048)?

Personally, I would wire just 2 in parallel. 3 panels would be 33amp which MIGHT be too much in terms of overpaneling. The 767 will only pull around 20amps.

 

[MGR457]

Can I avoid the overpaneling by using a MPPT charge controller between the panels and the Anker 767? Thinking I can get a little more juice (wattage) into the power bank than just using 2 panels.

 

[watchdoc]

Can I avoid the overpaneling by using a MPPT charge controller between the panels and the Anker 767? Thinking I can get a little more juice (wattage) into the power bank than just using 2 panels.

Maybe if the controller has custom output settings. I've never tried that myself

 

[wwu123]

Can I avoid the overpaneling by using a MPPT charge controller between the panels and the Anker 767? Thinking I can get a little more juice (wattage) into the power bank than just using 2 panels.

Yes, should work. I and a number of colleagues have the Anker Solix F3800, the 60V XT-60 inputs are similar to the Anker 767, just slightly higher amps (27A vs 20A) and watts (1200W vs 1000W) limits, but still basically constrained. MPPT controllers for 48V batteries work great, because they put out around 52-56V, which allows you to max out the watt limit on the Ankers before hitting the amps limit.

I use a 250V Growatt charge controller, which enabled me to take my panels that used to be 4P into the Anker to now be 4S into the Growatt. But like most SCC's, the Growatt needs to get a bit (5W) of power from the battery it is charging - since the Anker XT-60 cannot output power, I have a 51.2V server rack battery as a buffer.

A friend uses 150V Victron MPPT controller, nice thing is the Victrons will wake up from the solar PV power themselves, so you can feed their output straight into the Anker if you want. Though he has since added 51.2V server rack batteries as both a buffer and for extra capacity.

I expect all of this would work just as well on the Anker 767 as it does on the Anker F3800

 

[watchdoc]

check out these crazy stats. My son did a science paper on the pros and cons of vertical solar installations so we setup one of our Qcell 480 watt bi facial panels and took measurements for a couple months. (long story short, the vertical setup with east/west orientation came very close to the traditional south facing orientation in total production.)

We got about 4" of snow last night in Eastern, NC and it's very cold and sunny around 26 degree F. These panels are rated at 480 watts with 525 watts of possible bi facial gain. I've gotten 480-490 watts a few times from clould edge effect but never anything like this. I was seeing 570 watts a few time. Sunny and cold with max albedo is pretty cool.

 

[schmenkee]

I've been away from these forums for a few months, as well as from F3800 forums, but some interesting things have transpired recently.

First, someone just successfully wired 3 305W (32.5 Vmp) in series (so 90Vmp) to a solar charge controller, and then fed the output of the solar charge controller into the Anker's XT-60 port to charge. Even better, the EASun brand controller they used wasn't limited to standard 48V Li-Ion charging profiles, they could set a user-specific mode and choose 56V as the controller voltage into the Anker. Also, the EASun controller turned on via power solely from the solar inputs, even if the Anker wasn't connected yet to the output ports - this might be key, as I'd heard most solar charge controllers wouldn't power on unless there was a 48V buffer battery attached, basically that they powered their electronics from the battery being charged (the Anker might not be able to provide power or voltage out of the XT-60 port, to mimic a 48V battery to the controller).

Great news. A few questions.
Any update on this?
Has anyone used this approach on this forum?
What is the name of the F3800 forums you were referring to?
Does it have to be an EASun controller or is there another controller with similar results?
Thanks.

 

[wwu123]

Great news. A few questions.
Any update on this?
Has anyone used this approach on this forum?
What is the name of the F3800 forums you were referring to?
Does it have to be an EASun controller or is there another controller with similar results?
Thanks.

Yes, many people doing it on the Solix F3800 Facebook group, with Victron, EASun, PowMr, Growatt, EG4, and other SCC's or inverters. Most aside from the Victron need a 48V buffer battery in parallel with the XT-60 input - some to provide nominal power to the charge controller, others to provide the right 48V reference voltage for the autosensing (12/24/36/48 controller settings), as the F3800 input port does not present itself as a 48V battery to the charge controller, nor any power out. The Victron's can power up from PV intput power alone, and can 'wake' the F3800 MPPT input.

 

[schmenkee]

Yes, many people doing it on the Solix F3800 Facebook group, with Victron, EASun, PowMr, Growatt, EG4, and other SCC's or inverters. Most aside from the Victron need a 48V buffer battery in parallel with the XT-60 input - some to provide nominal power to the charge controller, others to provide the right 48V reference voltage for the autosensing (12/24/36/48 controller settings), as the F3800 input port does not present itself as a 48V battery to the charge controller, nor any power out. The Victron's can power up from PV intput power alone, and can 'wake' the F3800 MPPT input.

Thank you. I have the older Anker Powerhouse 767. Would the same apply to this model?

 

[wwu123]

Thank you. I have the older Anker Powerhouse 767. Would the same apply to this model?

Yes, I think even more so because not only is the 767 limited to 60V as well, but also restricted to 20A IIRC (vs 27A for the F3800).

 

[schmenkee]

Yes, I think even more so because not only is the 767 limited to 60V as well, but also restricted to 20A IIRC (vs 27A for the F3800).

Thank you so much for your input. Newbie, please forgive my ignorance. I have 4 trina panels at 280 Watts at 31.7 volts. Which Victron would you recommend I use for my 767? I've attached panel specs.

 

[wwu123]

Thank you so much for your input. Newbie, please forgive my ignorance. I have 4 trina panels at 280 Watts at 31.7 volts. Which Victron would you recommend I use for my 767? I've attached panel specs.

I think a Victron 100/20 would work fine, supports 48V batteries so works well with the 60V input limit, and does up to 1160W, which is perfect for those panels in 2S2P configuration.

 

[schmenkee]

I think a Victron 100/20 would work fine, supports 48V batteries so works well with the 60V input limit, and does up to 1160W, which is perfect for those panels in 2S2P configuration.

Great. Thanks for guiding me. I ended up getting a Victron 100/30 for a little more power. To reiterate, I can run the Victron wired directly into the 767 without the need for a 48v battery, correct??