Is this wired correctly?

[DerpsyDoodler]

That is what I think I did. I just have 4 batteries

My mistake. I thought the picture was 3 batteries and the far left was an SCC. Ive been reading a lot of different forum posts. if its wired like that, then you should be good to go for that part.

Do you have a multi-meter?

 

[MisterSandals]

Rewired . Is this correct now? I have 4 batteries, but probably only need 3; if I can figure this out

Looks good, well done.
So it looks like you have 3 Renogy batteries that look the same and the rightmost looks different.
Are they all the same age and size in amp hours? (still looking for a clue as to why you are having problems).

 

[Justjeanne1]

First, stop. Don't do anything wiring or rewiring until you get confirmation from someone that what you are going to do is safe.

Here is how to achieve the wiring depicted in the picture i posted:

put the positive cable from the inverter on top of the positive cable from the scc, then put them both on the positive terminal of the first battery.

Next, put the negative cable from the inverter onto the negative cable from the scc, then put them both on the negative terminal of the last battery.

Before you actually do anything, please describe what I said in your own words so we can confirm we all understand what you are going to do.

I first disconnected the solar panels from the charge controller. The positive wire from the charge controller goes to an inline 40 amp fuse. That wire goes to a 200amp breaker where the battery positive tied to battery 1 is coming from, as well as a cable to the positive on the inverter. Now the negative wire from the charge controller is connected to battery 4, which is now also connected to the negative on the inverter, and the negative on battery 3. Then I reconnected the solar panels to the charge controller

 

[Justjeanne1]

Looks good, well done.
So it looks like you have 3 Renogy batteries that look the same and the rightmost looks different.
Are they all the same age and size in amp hours? (still looking for a clue as to why you are having problems).

The last battery is also a Renogy lithium 100ah, but was bought a year earlier, just not used until the same time. It is NOT a smart battery however, but everything else is the same

 

[rhino]

Looks right to me now.

 

[Justjeanne1]

Now I am down to 76% and the voltage is. 12.7

 

[Justjeanne1]

The last battery is also a Renogy lithium 100ah, but was bought a year earlier, just not used until the same time. It is NOT a smart battery however, but everything else is the same

Back up to 79% now

 

[MisterSandals]

Now I am down to 76% and the voltage is. 12.7

For easy math, let’s say I am using 4 amps. Refrigerator 1.6, tv .6, and router .5,

Okay, i missed this earlier. Those are 120V AC amps! So lets do some math:

fridge: 1.6A x 120V = 192W
tv: .6A x 120V = 72W
router: .5A x 120V = 60W

Total 324W with inverter 15% loss: 324/.85 = 381W
381W / 12.8V = 29.8A

Your battery: 4x 100Ah = 400Ah
400Ah / 29.8A = 13.4 h runtime

I suspect your tv isn't on 24/7 but your batteries will not hold enough charge to last a day without recharging.

 

[MisterSandals]

Continuing the math (got interrupted, sorry):
381W x 24h = 9144Wh usage per day

2x 215W solar panels x 5hrs quality solar per day = 2150Wh produced per day

You are severely under paneled. Your panels are roughly 1/4 of your usage.
I suspect your battery is never getting fully charged and the Renogy display is showing your garbage numbers (i said i suspect).

 

[Justjeanne1]

Okay, i missed this earlier. Those are 120V AC amps! So lets do some math:

fridge: 1.6A x 120V = 192W
tv: .6A x 120V = 72W
router: .5A x 120V = 60W

Total 324W with inverter 15% loss: 324/.85 = 381W
381W / 12.8V = 29.8A

Your battery: 4x 100Ah = 400Ah
400Ah / 29.8A = 13.4 h runtime

I suspect your tv isn't on 24/7 but your batteries will not hold enough charge to last a day without recharging.

But don’t you also have to multiply the 100ah x 120 x 4, if I am comparing watts to watts? Or is that where I am missing it? It will charge back up in the morning. I also have a timer on the fridge to turn off for a few hours during the night which does help. I just don’t know how low I am going because of what you said about how the rover does their calculations using volts.

 

[Justjeanne1]

Continuing the math (got interrupted, sorry):
381W x 24h = 9144Wh usage per day

2x 215W solar panels x 5hrs quality solar per day = 2150Wh produced per day

You are severely under paneled. Your panels are roughly 1/4 of your usage.
I suspect your battery is never getting fully charged and the Renogy display is showing your garbage numbers (i said i suspect).

Yes I am definitely undercharged, so I have more panels and another mppt40, because it will only allow 540w input, so I will take add additional panels to another charge controlle, and I guess, wire the positive on battery 4 and the negative on battery 1? But it was at 100% at 5 when I got here today. Withe the fridge running 24/7 for the last 2 days. Nothing else on. Is there a better charge controller that is easy to read, that will tell me the actual usage of my batteries? I can send the new one back, I just got it.

 

[Justjeanne1]

My mistake. I thought the picture was 3 batteries and the far left was an SCC. Ive been reading a lot of different forum posts. if its wired like that, then you should be good to go for that part.

Do you have a multi-meter?

Yes. But I don’t know what I’m doing with it either. Lol

 

[DerpsyDoodler]

You're going to need several things, as far as I can tell, at this point. One of those being a coulomb-meter (aka battery monitor, aka shunt). MisterSandals may have been onto something when he started asking about the batteries. You've had a battery that's been sitting a year.

at what state of charge (soc) was it sitting? it might be prudent to just take it out of the bank and set it aside for now, to test individually. Or better yet, MisterSandals seemed like he may have been onto something, and he is quite capable and adept.

The numbers he crunched should be able to guestimate if its your actual usage or if there's a problem with the system (maybe a short or a bad battery, or even a bad appliance) dragging the voltage down.

 

[MisterSandals]

But don’t you also have to multiply the 100ah x 120 x 4, if I am comparing watts to watts?

I was only comparing how much you use in a day (9144Wh) with how much solar power you harvest (2150Wh) in a day. Day after day you are using 4x more than you are producing with solar.

The battery is for storing power and yes to get Wh of storage:
4x 100Ah x 12.8V = 5120Wh of storage

So your battery can store (5120/9144)= .56 days of energy usage.

But it will take your panels (5120/2150) = 2.38 days to recharge without using any power.

And of course these are all fairly rough numbers.