I'll share a system I did for my shed as my first post to this forum. I roughly doubled the capacity of the GZ1000 with a DIY battery.
The goal of the system was to use my off-grid camping stuff (GZ1000 and DC fridge) continuously when I was at home. Project Cold Beer was born. However, I don't recommend this system as it does go outside of the recommended DC input guidelines of the MPPT module. My GZ1000 is older and I have gotten my money out of it, it is has not been treated gently and it has proven very tough.
Regarding the GZ1000 DC inputs, my older version says by the PWM connection do not exceed 30V, inside the lid it says 16-45V 240W max for power pole port, MPPT says it's 15-22V under "standard use". I have run the MPPT and the PWM inputs up to 44V and >200W for several hours with no issues, YMMV. I run 22-24V typically in this config.
System Descripton:
4x100w Rich Solar Panels in series, (22.1 Voc per panel)
40A Rich Solar MPPT, 100VDC input max. (same as Renogy)
GZ1000
DIY Battery (3 Nissan Leaf style modules (2P2S x 2, 8 cells total) in series for 6S), cheap BMS, capacity test yielded 1050Whr.
This powers all my tool battery chargers, DC fridge (Dometic CFX3 56IM), 60V sccoter charger, secutity cam, shed lights, aux outlet. Nothing crazy.
Currently everything is running through the GZ1000 inverter which is connected to the Load output of the MPPT controller (20A max). I need to rewire this so the fridge is running off DC, probably battery direct but I need to build a cable. I have never seen the amperage go over 15A on the Load output so for now it is OK.
I built the battery with this setup in mind to keep the voltage lower and 7S was not possible with the Leaf modules. It is almost always between 22 and 24.6V (4.1 per cell). I did run a test down to 18V and it was fine. Actual capacity tested was almost exactly the same as GZ1000 rating.
In this config the GZ1000 will charge at up to ~300W according to its' meter. The Rich Solar Panels will also reach greater than 400W quite easily it seems, even in winter (I'm in the Bay Area CA). I calculated 404W today (the bluetooth app is crap and doesn't calculate correctly sometimes).
Issues:
- Cannot connect to PWM input port for some reason. It pulls too much amperage on initial connection and the solar controller will alarm and shut off the Load output. This does not happen on the MPPT so I'm not going to investigate further or create a soft start of some sort.
- As mentioned, the Bluetooth app is crap. I can take the spelling errors and ocassional messages in Chinese but sometimes it doesn't calculate the PV input correctly, somehow showing amperage as 1/3 of what is displayed directly on the controller unit itself. I tested the Renogy app and it's the same except for the color.
Overall happy with it and the goal is met, we have cold beer! I will probably get rid of the GZ1000 and just do a 24V system with and inverter but for now it serves my purposes. Dreaming of something with enough juice to power my Dewalt Miter Saw, the GZ 1500/3000W inverter can't handle the inrush.
The goal of the system was to use my off-grid camping stuff (GZ1000 and DC fridge) continuously when I was at home. Project Cold Beer was born. However, I don't recommend this system as it does go outside of the recommended DC input guidelines of the MPPT module. My GZ1000 is older and I have gotten my money out of it, it is has not been treated gently and it has proven very tough.
Regarding the GZ1000 DC inputs, my older version says by the PWM connection do not exceed 30V, inside the lid it says 16-45V 240W max for power pole port, MPPT says it's 15-22V under "standard use". I have run the MPPT and the PWM inputs up to 44V and >200W for several hours with no issues, YMMV. I run 22-24V typically in this config.
System Descripton:
4x100w Rich Solar Panels in series, (22.1 Voc per panel)
40A Rich Solar MPPT, 100VDC input max. (same as Renogy)
GZ1000
DIY Battery (3 Nissan Leaf style modules (2P2S x 2, 8 cells total) in series for 6S), cheap BMS, capacity test yielded 1050Whr.
This powers all my tool battery chargers, DC fridge (Dometic CFX3 56IM), 60V sccoter charger, secutity cam, shed lights, aux outlet. Nothing crazy.
Currently everything is running through the GZ1000 inverter which is connected to the Load output of the MPPT controller (20A max). I need to rewire this so the fridge is running off DC, probably battery direct but I need to build a cable. I have never seen the amperage go over 15A on the Load output so for now it is OK.
I built the battery with this setup in mind to keep the voltage lower and 7S was not possible with the Leaf modules. It is almost always between 22 and 24.6V (4.1 per cell). I did run a test down to 18V and it was fine. Actual capacity tested was almost exactly the same as GZ1000 rating.
In this config the GZ1000 will charge at up to ~300W according to its' meter. The Rich Solar Panels will also reach greater than 400W quite easily it seems, even in winter (I'm in the Bay Area CA). I calculated 404W today (the bluetooth app is crap and doesn't calculate correctly sometimes).
Issues:
- Cannot connect to PWM input port for some reason. It pulls too much amperage on initial connection and the solar controller will alarm and shut off the Load output. This does not happen on the MPPT so I'm not going to investigate further or create a soft start of some sort.
- As mentioned, the Bluetooth app is crap. I can take the spelling errors and ocassional messages in Chinese but sometimes it doesn't calculate the PV input correctly, somehow showing amperage as 1/3 of what is displayed directly on the controller unit itself. I tested the Renogy app and it's the same except for the color.
Overall happy with it and the goal is met, we have cold beer! I will probably get rid of the GZ1000 and just do a 24V system with and inverter but for now it serves my purposes. Dreaming of something with enough juice to power my Dewalt Miter Saw, the GZ 1500/3000W inverter can't handle the inrush.
