Favorite 24v SCC for small system?

[kenfused]

I'm researching using 4 260W REC solar panels (used) to charge a 24V LiFePo4 battery 200AH.

I was looking at various models and it seems for a SCC, Epever AN or BN series, or Victron, or Renege are popular.
What is your favorite one?
I was thinking of a 60A model, to future proof the system a bit, in case I added a few more panels. Doesn't seem like the Epever BN has a 60A, but has a 40A on amazon.

Any suggestions would be appreciated

 

[Supervstech]

I don’t see a 60A scc being much future proofing…

Sure, it’ll allow more solar to be used, if only another 400W, but the battery can use 200A many have a 50% charging limit, or 100A.

 

[Don B. Cilly]

I use two Epever AN 30A. I added panels. I'm quite happy with them.
I have one wifi module I used to program both.
-

 

[kenfused]

Thanks. When adding say more panels another SCC can you simply connect a second one straight to the battery?

 

[Leeds]

Yes, your SCC's can be in parallel all attached to the same battery. I'm currently doing a very similar project, with three strings of 2 320W panels. Each of my strings land on a 30A Epever charge controller and all three charge controllers are attached to the same 200AH 24V battery.

 

[kenfused]

Thanks, never considered that. Good ideas. Any advantage to doing 3 small SCCs vs one larger one? besides having multiple points of failure?

 

[Pierre]

Thanks, never considered that. Good ideas. Any advantage to doing 3 small SCCs vs one larger one? besides having multiple points of failure?

Redundancy , smaller units , thinner cable runs , better placement of PV panels to optimise sun.

 

[Rocketman]

Since you asked what SCC we liked, I really like Victron. It is more expensive tier1 equipment.

It really works best if you also have a Victron shunt (usually Smartshunt or BMV712) on the battery (get the temperature sensor if there is any chance of your batteries being below 35 degrees F ever.

The thing I like most about Victron is the updates that continue to happen. Both these next three favorite features were not in the product when I bought it.
1. Graphs and stored data.
2. Low voltage temperature cutoff.
3. All data on main app screen. (New feature)

With both the shunt and mppt, you can setup a Bluetooth network VE.Smart Network. It will pass the voltage, temperature and current from the shunt to the mppt.

(The more Victron stuff, the better it can work all together- inverter and Cerbo).

Good Luck with your project.

 

[Any name you wish]

I have a 30 and 40A Epever AN series. Both I got for under $120 each and they work fine with my array. I did blow up a 60A one because my weatherproofing was not weather ...proof.

 

[JK14]

For Epever (at least the Triron series), I found the MT-50 wired remote display necessary to program the parameters needed for LFP batteries. So if that does not come as a package would need to be added for ~$32.

 

[Any name you wish]

I did not like the MT50 for that. I do have the USB converter for each of my SCC and use that for programming. I do have an MT50 just in case one fails for some reason. Personal preference though.

 

[v_green57]

For Epever (at least the Triron series), I found the MT-50 wired remote display necessary to program the parameters needed for LFP batteries. So if that does not come as a package would need to be added for ~$32.

Or the wifi box. Either way.

EPEVERs allow you to program down to .01 volts, which is handy when using two or more of them charging the same battery bank. They often don't match out-of-the-box, but you can make them do that by carefully programming them.

For instance, at this minute, my two 4210's are showing 25.27V and 25.19V (740aH FLA battery bank after dark). Just change the charge params on one of them to take the OOTB difference into account.

 

[KMac55]

Look at Morningstar. Great controller.