diy solar

diy solar

Hello guys having an issue with my setup

I

ilove2fix

New Member
Joined
Mar 29, 2021
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Hello everyone i have 2 systems, one for each floor. Here is what i have for each floor.
2x 165w panels
Reggie RG-505 30A controller
1200/1400 watt Smarten ups
200Ah Genus Tubular battery
Up stairs has cable run is about 38ft
Downstairs about 50ft
6mm cable from Panels to charger controller
But only 5mm cable from charger controller to battery on positive terminal and 2.5mm cable to neg. I didnt set it up a friend of mine did. He initially had only 2.5mm cable i upgraded it to 6mm.

My issue is that the battery doesn't stay fully charged during peak hours with only about 30% load on system during the peak mid day hours.
I am in Aden Yemen and its sunny here all day every day lol
 
Forgot to mention on charge controller downstairs i get up to 14 amps and about 14volts but only during mid day usually its around 8-10 amps and 12-13v
Upstairs its a little better on volts sometimes as high 17 ? Also why is it sometimes i only see 2 amps during day usually on the upstairs controller ? Is it because the battery is almost full and can controller auto adjusts to take only what it needs?
 
The voltage from the panels to the solar charge controller is high, so the wire gauge doesn't need to be high. After the solar charge controller, the voltage is lower and the amps are higher, so the wire gauge needs to be higher. 6mm wire is 10 awg equivalent. That may be good enough, but it depends on the specifications for your solar panels and how you have them configured (series/parallel).

The cables should be balanced - the same size - for positive and negative. I don't know why you have different sizes.

None of this helps to answer why your battery isn't charged. Saying 30% load doesn't really tell me much. How many actual watts are on the load? You may need more PV. 2x165 isn't much.

The solar charge controller is going to throttle back the amps as the battery gets full. But if there is a load, it should be cranking out as much as possible.
 
Hello , well the Volts at the controller end measured 20v when unplugged fr controller.
When connected it goes down to 13v and the Amps are around 10-14Amps during midday.
Volts going to battery is about 13v even after i upgraded the controller to battery cables to 6mm and still way nly got 13v is that fine?
Also my friend set it up thats why they were unbalanced but i balanced them now.
Exactly when there is a load and ups is running it should be cranking out as much amps as possible right?
Yeah i think 300w isnt enough to charge a 200ah battery while in use .
I think around 400w is being used during at any given time. Maybe going up to 500w -600 max
But how to measure it exactly? The ups is 1400 watt and i never seen show over 50% load . Which would mean around 600-800?
 
ilove2fix said:
Exactly when there is a load and ups is running it should be cranking out as much amps as possible right?
Yeah i think 300w isnt enough to charge a 200ah battery while in use .
I think around 400w is being used during at any given time. Maybe going up to 500w -600 max
But how to measure it exactly? The ups is 1400 watt and i never seen show over 50% load . Which would mean around 600-800?
Click to expand...

A UPS on standby shouldn't be using many watts. If the battery is full, the solar charge controller isn't going to be putting out many amps, if any at all.
 
So is 320w enough to charge my battery while using about 500w ? Or do i need another panel or 2? Also i noticed the battery bubbling/fizzing yesterday during mid day battery is about 35c and using about 400w charge controller shows 14amp and 13.4v is this normal ?
 
Slight bubbling noise is normal... venting anything is not normal.
If your panel voltage is dropping to battery voltage, you have a pwm controller. If you have panels with high vmp a pwm wastes a lot of watts.
if your usage of 500W is constant, more solar is needed. If not, then your solar should handle it.
 
I believe its around 500 because even during mid day 14amps charging battery never gets full only about half, basically. Im using more then im putting back in . Is there a way to measure with a meter how many watts are being exerted by the ups ? Is it better to get a mppt or an extra panel ?
 
A third panel would put you over the maximum PV input volts (55v) for that solar charge controller.

I can't tell you if the PWM solar charge controller you're using is limiting what you can get out of those panels. Your theoretical max is about 27.5 amps, which is 2.5 amps less than the controller is rated for.

If you remove all loads from the system and the only thing connected to the battery is the solar charge controller, what readings do you get?
 
Ill look into getting a mppt and see if it helps of not then ill add another panel

I turned off the ups so no loads and it showed 14v and 12 amps at 10 AM. Same as when there's a load no difference
 
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