EPever Tracer 4210AN and 340W panel not giving more than 40W output?

[shoei600]

Hi Forum,

I'm sure I'm missing something here but I have an Epever Tracer 4210AN charge controller hooked up to a 12v SLA leisure battery with 105Ah, and the Eurener 340W Datasheet PV panel: https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/pdfs/Eurener 340 - Datasheet
Datasheet Epever: https://www.epever.com/product/tracer-an-10-40a-mppt-charge-controller/

Everything is working fine but I would have expected much more from the panel to charge the battery more quickly. The panel only seems to generate 120 watts in a sunny day. I'm taking the RS485 feed to Home Assistant which reports the panel is reaching 40v but only about 30 watts.

Would the charge controller be limiting/controlling the panel output? Is there something I can do to improve this please?

Thanks.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Hi Forum,

I'm sure I'm missing something here but I have an Epever Tracer 4210AN charge controller hooked up to a 12v SLA leisure battery with 105Ah, and the Eurener 340W Datasheet PV panel: https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/pdfs/Eurener 340 - Datasheet
Datasheet Epever: https://www.epever.com/product/tracer-an-10-40a-mppt-charge-controller/

Everything is working fine but I would have expected much more from the panel to charge the battery more quickly. The panel only seems to generate 120 watts in a sunny day. I'm taking the RS485 feed to Home Assistant which reports the panel is reaching 40v but only about 30 watts.

Would the charge controller be limiting/controlling the panel output? Is there something I can do to improve this please?

Thanks

What's the battery SOC/voltage currently? Do you have any loads on the system? Not trying to discount you may indeed have a problem but this might be normal behaviour for the mppt depending on these factors. If your battery is at full charge the epever might just be in float and only topping off the battery, with no other loads 30w sounds correct.

 

[shoei600]

At the time of the 30W output the battery was 14.7v. Attached graphs which also show charge status. Load is typically between 5-10 watts. I will be adding a small pond pump and irrigation pump soon. It seems to be working fine I just would have expected much more output as it is available - or at least should be.

Is there a method I can use briefly to test - when the sun is out - full capacity mode?

Thanks.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

At the time of the 30W output the battery was 14.7v. Attached graphs which also show charge status. Load is typically between 5-10 watts. I will be adding a small pond pump and irrigation pump soon. It seems to be working fine I just would have expected much more output as it is available - or at least should be.

Is there a method I can use briefly to test - when the sun is out - full capacity mode?

Thanks.

Strangely your ha entity for charging status indicates float for most of the day then boost in the early morning/late afternoon. I would grab as big as 12v load as you can like an old car stereo or something else you may have that runs off a car cigarette lighter and try that also try disconnecting the PV panel from the controller and leave it a while to let the battery voltage settle then connect again when it's sunny. The 30w makes sense at float but why you have float when the battery isn't fully charged seems to be the issue maybe you need a constant load on the battery to give a more reliable voltage reading for the epever.

 

[shoei600]

Interesting. I did find it strange that if it had been floating all day why it would need to charge in the evening. I have a 600w mains inverter and a kettle to put a heavy load on but the manual shows this wired directly to the battery, not via the load terminals of the controller so we wouldn't see it, only its impact. I'll find a 50-100w load and run the inverter through the epever and see how that responds. Thanks.

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Interesting. I did find it strange that if it had been floating all day why it would need to charge in the evening. I have a 600w mains inverter and a kettle to put a heavy load on but the manual shows this wired directly to the battery, not via the load terminals of the controller so we wouldn't see it, only its impact. I'll find a 50-100w load and run the inverter through the epever and see how that responds. Thanks.

No directly to the battery with heavy load should be fine we want the battery to have a load so that the controller can see a realistic voltage of the battery.
When you get a voltage reading from a battery especially charging it's normally not a true voltage I suspect that's what's happening here the epever is giving a charging voltage to the battery without load so the battery is quickly absorbing it giving you false levels.

My epever did the same. It wasn't till I had a constant load on the battery(desk lights,Bluetooth speaker and extractor fans) that it successfully started to charge.

 

[shoei600]

Hi,
I was able to put a kettle on the system a few times and the controller did start getting higher panel wattages, over 300. I also now have a near constant load of a further 10w on top of the original 8w.

It does though seem odd how it seems to charge the battery very, very quickly then sits floating before again going back to full charge just as dusk arrives. I think it may not be reading the battery voltage properly and instead is reading what it is sending. I would have though the controller would stop sending charge, take a reading, then continue.

Please check the attached graphs are inline with what you would expect, or if I should make any adjustments tot he default controller settings.

Many thanks.

 

[v_green57]

Not odd at all. Toward evening, your panel begins to supply less power, and the battery voltage falls back to the "re-boost" voltage, which cancels Float. EPEVER calls the parameter "Boost reconnect voltage".

 

[ThaiTaffy]

Hi,
I was able to put a kettle on the system a few times and the controller did start getting higher panel wattages, over 300. I also now have a near constant load of a further 10w on top of the original 8w.

It does though seem odd how it seems to charge the battery very, very quickly then sits floating before again going back to full charge just as dusk arrives. I think it may not be reading the battery voltage properly and instead is reading what it is sending. I would have though the controller would stop sending charge, take a reading, then continue.

Please check the attached graphs are inline with what you would expect, or if I should make any adjustments tot he default controller settings.

Many thanks.View attachment 222627

Yes sadly this is the issue with recording soc via voltage and is normal for these epever ssc's, the battery does actually absorb the voltage quickly which as v_green explained normal behaviour for this SSC. But at least we know the panel is in fact working correctly.
You might be able to alter the parameters but to what I'm unsure, maybe browse the forum for epever related threads you may find something helpful.

 

[shoei600]

Thank you both for your help. At least I know it's getting most use of the panel when it can/needs to. I'm more used to trickle charging big SLA batteries and noticed this was getting over 10amp when it started charging from the PV panel which of course is considerably more. Thanks again.

 

[v_green57]

Thank you both for your help. At least I know it's getting most use of the panel when it can/needs to. I'm more used to trickle charging big SLA batteries and noticed this was getting over 10amp when it started charging from the PV panel which of course is considerably more. Thanks again.

You can try lowering the "Boost reconnect voltage" a couple tenths and see if it stays in Float longer at the end of the day as an experiment. No harm, no foul. However, if you get it TOO low, you'll still be in Float the next morning if the battery never goes below the "Boost reconnect voltage".