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diy solar

How many watts is my solar panel producing

Chaucer

New Member
Joined
Oct 1, 2022
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58
Hi, Total newbie here. I bought a renogy 100W solar panel with the voyager controller. The voyager control shows amp hours. Is there a way to determine how many watts the solar panel is producing. Does it keep any kind of total? Does the amp hours reset every time it is powered off.

Thank you
 
I think that is the current coming in from the panel because it has a little pv symbol.

When youre starting out its good to check both incoming and outgoing wattage using a quality DC clamp meter. So far most controllers and watt meters I have experimented with tend to be inaccurate at measuring current. I had to return the $89 kaiweets clamp meter because it read really high and my $40 UNI-T clamp meter reads a little low. If the circuit is under 10 amps you can use a quality voltmeter on the DC amp setting wired directly into the circuit to verify if your clamp meter is close.
 
Good point, I hadn't noticed the small PV label the small "Ball" label on the bottom two confuses me.

I've got one of those UNI-T clamp meters, it works well enough, I like it.
 
If watts into the battery isn't related to PV production, where do you propose the energy came from?

PV watts is going to match battery charging watts + the charge controller efficiency.
Given the limited info available on the basic charge controller we'll take what we can get.
 
If watts into the battery isn't related to PV production, where do you propose the energy came from?

PV watts is going to match battery charging watts + the charge controller efficiency.
Given the limited info available on the basic charge controller we'll take what we can get.
He asked about Panel wattage so I took a snapshot out of the owners manual and after seeing they show PV voltage and PV charging current I kept the Units Of Measure the same but not talking about the battery.
One common thing I noticed on this forum is a lot of people do not really know amps, volts, watts so I try and break things down and explain.
 
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