Help- Victron App for dummies.

[Maggie Belle]

The manual for the BMV has a section describing most of the settings. Same for the charge controller. What? Read the manual? Who does that?

Thanks. I did read it and have been reading manuals and books like textbooks. I am not just building this for now, I want to learn and continue on property in the future. While I understand the manual I don’t always know how it applies to my batteries or system or rig. Sometimes someone else explains it differently and it clicks.

 

[rmaddy]

Thanks. I did read it and have been reading manuals and books like textbooks. I am not just building this for now, I want to learn and continue on property in the future. While I understand the manual I don’t always know how it applies to my batteries or system or rig. Sometimes someone else explains it differently and it clicks.

I agree fully. You have to be able to ask questions about what was read.

 

[Maggie Belle]

• Your panels are producing 30.7 Volts at 9.2 Amps. So that's 282 Watts. Good.
• That's being converted to 20.4A going into your 12V battery, with a charge Voltage of 13.55 Volts. Good.
• That's 276 Watts from the 282Watts from the panels. Good.
• That's BULK charging, as shown. Good.
• It should decrease to slower charge rates as the battery fills up.
• Your phone needs charging soon. Bad!

I'm hoping you can answer one more question for me. Today was full sun, parked oriented well toward the sun, no clouds or shade and the most watts I saw on my victron app was 220. Isn't that low for those conditions with 2 180W panels?

 

[Rocketman]

Well it is winter… (at least it is for me and I am assuming you are in northern hemisphere).

I am assuming you are in an RV. What state are you in?

You only get full wattage from panels in standard conditions (you can get more or less if the conditions are not standard).

Getting a bit over 50% doesn’t surprise me - that was about what I was getting a couple weeks ago when traveling.

The sun angle is low, my panels are flat - there is just not the availability sun to get close to full power.

Yesterday I was reading on this site and someone mentioned a calculator to figure out how much power could be produced in winter vs summer. There is a HUGE difference! (See if you can find something like that).

 

[sunshine_eggo]

This is a decent tool for that:

Solar Irradiance Calculator

www.solarelectricityhandbook.com

Even some place like Phoenix:



Can only harvest about 40% of the energy in December vs. Jun with flat panels. Even for November, it's less than 50%.

This is not necessarily POWER, but total energy harvest. It also factors in the shorter days and possibly inclement winter weather.

 

[Maggie Belle]

Well it is winter… (at least it is for me and I am assuming you are in northern hemisphere).

I am assuming you are in an RV. What state are you in?

You only get full wattage from panels in standard conditions (you can get more or less if the conditions are not standard).

Getting a bit over 50% doesn’t surprise me - that was about what I was getting a couple weeks ago when traveling.

The sun angle is low, my panels are flat - there is just not the availability sun to get close to full power.

Yesterday I was reading on this site and someone mentioned a calculator to figure out how much power could be produced in winter vs summer. There is a HUGE difference! (See if you can find something like that).

Thanks! I think I assumed that I’m in Florida it would be better. But the sun is still just not as high (and I’m otherwise loving it. )

 

[Maggie Belle]

This is a decent tool for that:

Solar Irradiance Calculator

www.solarelectricityhandbook.com

Even some place like Phoenix:

View attachment 73316

Can only harvest about 40% of the energy in December vs. Jun with flat panels. Even for November, it's less than 50%.

This is not necessarily POWER, but total energy harvest. It also factors in the shorter days and possibly inclement winter weather.

Thanks for this awesome tool!

 

[PerryB67]

I'm hoping you can answer one more question for me. Today was full sun, parked oriented well toward the sun, no clouds or shade and the most watts I saw on my victron app was 220. Isn't that low for those conditions with 2 180W panels?

We have 465 watts on the roof. The original 170 watts was not enough many times, so we added three 100 watt panels. Wired in parallel only lost 5 watts (would have lost 65 watts in series for only 405 watts). Our 170 watt panel never got over 150-160 watts in June/July and we wanted about 100 watts more, but as long as I was making brackets and up on the roof, decided to add three panels.

Because the panels are nearly flat on the roof we'll never get full power. The original 170 watt panel is about 5 degrees to the rear because of the sloping roof. Two years ago, in January, at Death Valley the panel was worthless because it was shaded by the air conditioning. The recently added two middle panels are also sloped to the rear, but the front panel is sloped to the front. Because of how I built the brackets next summer I'll change the two middle panels to be flat.

Last week, November 17-19, at Pikes Peak State Park in northern Iowa we saw up to 260 watts driving home in the perfect orientation for the panels, but because of our camper orientation and tree branch shading only got around 80 watts at the site. Our Victron 100/30 keeps track of maximum power, and I can watch the app from my truck while driving. That was higher than expected for November in northern Iowa. Last summer we saw a maximum of 430 watts the end of June.

Enjoy,

Perry

 

[Maggie Belle]

We have 465 watts on the roof. The original 170 watts was not enough many times, so we added three 100 watt panels. Wired in parallel only lost 5 watts (would have lost 65 watts in series for only 405 watts). Our 170 watt panel never got over 150-160 watts in June/July and we wanted about 100 watts more, but as long as I was making brackets and up on the roof, decided to add three panels.

Because the panels are nearly flat on the roof we'll never get full power. The original 170 watt panel is about 5 degrees to the rear because of the sloping roof. Two years ago, in January, at Death Valley the panel was worthless because it was shaded by the air conditioning. The recently added two middle panels are also sloped to the rear, but the front panel is sloped to the front. Because of how I built the brackets next summer I'll change the two middle panels to be flat.

Last week, November 17-19, at Pikes Peak State Park in northern Iowa we saw up to 260 watts driving home in the perfect orientation for the panels, but because of our camper orientation and tree branch shading only got around 80 watts at the site. Our Victron 100/30 keeps track of maximum power, and I can watch the app from my truck while driving. That was higher than expected for November in northern Iowa. Last summer we saw a maximum of 430 watts the end of June.

Enjoy,

Perry

Thanks, Perry. All these experiences from others are helping me learn.